♦<*>♦<«  ♦<«♦»>♦»>♦«>  twi 


QHILDREN 
OF  THE  NATIONS 


POULTNEY  BIGELOW 


LTNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


^ 


THE    CHILDREN 
OF   THE   NATIONS 


THE    CHILDREN 
OF  THE  NATIONS 

A  STUDY  OF  COLONIZATION 
AND     ITS     PROBLEMS 

By 

POULTNEY  BIGELOW,  M.A.,  F.R.G.s. 

Author  of  "  History  of  the  German  Struggle 
for   Liberty,"    "White    Man's   Africa,"   Etc. 


M^.Clurk,  Pimlmps  £5  C9 

NEW      YORK 
M  c:  M  I 


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To 


iy.  ^  I  ^HE  Tiiost  philosophic  of  Travellers^ 

A  the  most  travelled  of  Philosophers 

— who  loves  his  country  yet  speaks  ill  of 

no  other — these  pages  are  dedicated  in 

sign  of  affectionate  regard  by  the  author 


5 


KiOSiJI 


PREFACE 


THIS  brief  work  is  an  attempt  to  explain  the 
influence  which  the  mother  country  exerts 
upon  colonies,  and  which  colonies  in  turn 
exert  upon  the  mother  country — for  good  or  evil.  It 
is  largely  the  result  of  personal  observation  in  parts 
of  the  world  controlled  by  the  great  colonizing  pow- 
ers. We  Americans  have  now  a  Colonial  Empire  to 
administer,  and  we  cannot  afiford  to  be  indifferent  to  a 
matter  which  has  in  times  past  profoundly  modified 
the  constitution  of  nearly  every  great  civilized  nation. 
An  effort  has  here  been  made  to  point  out  why  one 
country  has  failed  and  another  succeeded.  It  is  our 
hope  that  earnest  people  may  ultimately  induce  Con- 
gress to  establish  a  National  University  for  the  study 
of  subjects  in  which  a  colonial  of^cial  should  be  pro- 
ficient. We  need  a  species  of  Colonial  West  Point ;  wc 
owe  it  to  our  fellow-men — whether  they  be  Spanish 
or  Tagalog;  Chinese  or  Malay;  Papist  or  Pagan;  East 
or  West  Indian — that  we  give  them  a  government 
based  on  business  principles.  We  can  expect  no  as- 
sistance in  Washington  until  one  of  the  great  political 
parties  is  made  to  feci  the  effect  of  an  awakened  public 
conscience. 

I  cannot  adc(|nrit('Iy  express  my  obligation  to  the 
many  wlio  have  helped  me  in  my  task — friends  scat- 
tered in  all  corners  of  the  world,  missionaries,  mer- 

I    vii    I 


PREFACE 


chants,  soldiers,  sailors,  consuls,  and  natives.  Many 
of  these  cannot  be  quoted  because  of  their  official 
relations. 

As  to  works  on  this  subject,  there  are  many  excel- 
lent ones  suggested  by  such  names  as  Zimmermann, 
Lucas,  Morris,  Woodrow  Wilson,  Theall.  But  the 
subject  is  one  that  enfolds  the  earth,  and  requires  for 
its  discussion  a  basis  of  facts  which  are  but  feebly 
supplied  by  the  official  reports  of  administrators.  If 
many  of  my  conclusions  vary  from  those  current  it 
will  be  found  that  I  have  drawn  less  from  official  re- 
ports than  from  personal  inquiry  and  observation. 


POULTNEY  BiGELOW. 


Century  Club, 
New  York,  March  27,  1901. 


[  ^^"  1 


CONTENTS 

Page 

I.  How  Spain  Commenced  to  Colonize     ...       i 

Columbus  and  the  Slave-trade — Greed  for  Gold  at  the  Spanish  Court — 
Las  Casas  Tries  to  Protect  Natives. 

II.  The  First  Check  to  Spanish  Colonization      19 

The  Reformation — A  Conflict  between  Germanic  and  Latin  Ideas — Con- 
quest of  Peru — Spain's  Constant  Need  of  Gold. 

III.  The  Development  of  South  America    .     .     34 

Extermination  of  Natives — Influence  of  the  Jesuits  in  Paraguay. 

IV.  The  Relations  of  Spain  with  Cuba  and 
Manila  Down  to  the  End  of  the  Nine- 
teenth Century 45 

The  Effect  of  Freebooting  on  the  Development  of  Colonial  Trade  in  the 
Sixteenth  Century  —  English  Occupation  of  Havana  and  Manila  — 
Treatment  of  Chinese. 

V.  The   Totter   and   Tumble   of   Spain's    Co- 

lonial Empire 61 

Influence  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  on  South  America — The  Fight  be- 
tween Spain  and  Her  Colonies. 

VI.  Latter-Day  Cuba 73 

Indifference  to  Emancipation  at  the  Beginning  of  the  Century — Prosperity 
under  Slavery — Influence  of  the  United  Sl.ites. 

VII.  The  Philippines  in  Our    Time     .     .     .     .     S4 

Spaniuh  and  English  Systems  Compared — Influcnco  of  the  Roni.m  Cliun  li 
— The  Yankee  in  M.inil.i. 

I     '^     1 


CONTENTS 


Page 

VIII.  The  Negro  as  an   Element  in  Colonial 
Expansion 93 

The  Negro  in  America  —  South  Africa — West  Indies — As  a  Soldier — 
Equality  with  Whites. 

IX.  Official  German  Colonization    .     .     .     .111 

The  German  in  Kiao  Chow  —  German  East  Africa — West    Indies  and 
United  States. 

X.  Colonial  Portugal  in  Our  Time  .     .     .     .126 

Some  Personal    Notes  on  Delagoa    Bay — Macao — The    Moluccas — The 
Portuguese  Slave-trade  and  Missionary  Enterprise. 

XI.  The  First  Years  of  Portuguese  Greatness  135 

Early    Explorers — Henry   the    Navigator — Albuquerque — Relations    with 
Africa  and  the  Far  East. 

XII.  The  Colonial  Break-up  of  Portugal  .     .   142 

St.  Francis  Xavier — Jesuits  in  China — Official  Corruption — Military  De- 
cadence. 

XIII.  Portugal  in  America 147 

Founding  of  Brazil — Jesuit  Missions — Criminals. 

XIV.  The  Evolution  of  the   Boer     .     .     .     .153 

Conflict  between  Dutch  East  India  Company  and  the  Boers — Attitude  of 
England  toward  the  Boers — Future  of  South  Africa. 

XV.  The  Dutch   Colonist  of  To-day     .     .     .168 

Traces  of  Holland  in  New  York — Transvaal — British  Guiana — Contrast 
of  Boer  and  Dutchman. 

XVI.  The  Boer  at  Home 176 

Domestic  Life  of  the  Boer  To-day — Comparison  between  South  Africa  and 
North  America. 

[    X    ] 


CONTENTS 

Page 

XVII.  The  Scandinavian  Colonist 183 

Denmark  in  the  West  Indies — A  Canoe  Cruise  Round  St.  Thomas — Ne- 
groes in  Santa  Cruz. 

XVIII.  Some    Notes    from    the    Danish    West 
Indies  made  in  Santa   Cruz 190 

Influence  of  English  Language — A  Successful  Planter — How  to  Treat  the 
Blacks. 

/ 

XIX.  The  Chinaman  as  Colonist 205 

His  Increase  in  the  United  States  and  Australia — Singapore — Hong  Kong 
— Industrial  Value. 

XX.  Old  France  in  the  New  World     .     .     .216 

Influences  which  Retarded  Colonization  in  Canada — History  of  the  Move- 
ment— Church  and  State. 

XXI.  The  Spirit  of  France   in   the  West  In- 
dies     224 

Liberty  and  Progress  Due  to  the  Freebooters — Martinique  and  Guadeloupe 
— Effect  of  Slavery. 

XXII.  The  West  Indies  Two   Hundred  Years 
Ago   ... 235 

Voyage  of  PJre  Labat — Extraordinary  Luxury — Treatment  of  Natives. 

XXIII.  Colonial  France  To-day 246 

De»irc  for  Colonics,  Why  Unsuccessful — Excellence  as  Missionaries,  Italian 
Emigrants. 

XXIV.  The  Spread  of  Russia 252 

I'iie  Coluniz.itiiji)  of  Sibcri.i — Conlliil  liclwccii  t'iiin.i  and  Rustii.i. 


CONTENTS 


Page 

XXV.  The    Beginnings    of    English    Coloniza- 

/         TioN   IN    America 263 

Settlement  of  Virginia,  New  England,  Barbados — Capacity  of  English  for 
Self-government. 

XXVI.  When  Americans  Were  English  .     .     .272 

Settlements  in  Virginia,  Maryland,  New  England — Love  of  Local  Liberty 
— English  Tradition. 

XXVII.  Why    England    Lost    Her    American 
Colonies 279 

Tyranny  of  English  Colonial  Administration  before  America  Rebelled — 
Contrast  with  Present-Day  Relations. 

XXVIII.  A    Successful    Tropical    Republic    in 
THE  West  Indies 285 

Barbados — A   Tropical    Republic — Declares  Charles  II.    King — Opposes 
Cromwell — Economic  Development. 

XXIX.  From  My  Diary  in  British  Guiana     .  297 

January  25,  1890.     In  the  Court  Room  at  Georgetown,  Demerara. 

XXX.  The  West   Indies  To-day  and  To-mor- 
Row 303 

Negro,   Chinese,    East  Indians  and  Whites — Duty  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
toward  West  Indies — Good  Government  Needed. 

XXXI.  Australasia 314 

Indifference  of  the  Mother  Country  to  this  Colony — Startling  Advances  in 
Material  Wealth  and  Political  Experiment. 

XXXII.  Can  the  White   Man  and   His  Wife 
Flourish  in  the  Tropics 330 

Railways  and  Sanitation  Essentials  to  the  White  Man's  Happiness  in  the 
Tropics — Heat  Itself  not  Dangerous. 

r  xii  1 


CONTENTS 


Page 

XXXIII.  The  White   Invasion   of   China     .     .  341 

Treaty  Ports — Self-government  of  White  Merchants — The  Open   Door 
Policy. 

XXXIV.  The  Philosophy  of  Colonization  .     .  353 

Trade  Does  not  Necessarily  Follow  the  Flag — Home  Government  Should 
Encourage   Emigration. 

XXXV.  The    American  as  a  Colonist     .     .     .  359 

Spread  of  New  Englanders  over  all  North  America — Capacity  for  Local 
Self-government. 


f    '«'''    1 


I 

HOW   SPAIN   COMMENCED   TO    COLONIZE 

*'  Blind  folly,  ignoble  selfishness,  crushing  tyranny,  and  hideous 
cruelty,  mark  every  page  of  the  history  of  the  domination  of  Spain. ' ' 
— Lecky,  "Rationalism  in  Europe,"  II.,  335. 

Columbus  and   the  Slave-trade — Greed  for  Gold  at  the  Spanish 
Court — Las  Casas  Tries  to  Protect  Natives 

AT  the  centre  of  Spain,  in  the  high,  bleak,  stony 
plateau  characteristic  of  the  neighborhood 
north  of  Madrid,  rising  like  a  vast  and  monot- 
onous mausoleum  out  of  a  dead  waste  of  granite  boul- 
ders, stands  the  far-famed  Escurial.  It  embodies  the 
spirit  that  gave  it  birth,  the  mind  of  a  man  half  mon- 
arch, half  monk;  a  king  whose  audience  chamber  was 
the  cell  of  a  recluse,  whose  walks  abroad  were  limited 
by  the  walls  of  a  cloister,  to  whom  sunshine  and  the 
song  of  birds  were  profane,  whose  waking  and  sleeping 
were  alike  determined  by  monastic  rules.  Philip  II.* 
built  this  mighty  architectural  monstrosity.  The  old 
world  and  the  new  were  ransacked  for  its  adornment. 
Within  its  walls  is  embedded  a  cathedral  that  would 
be  considered  of  commanding  proportions  in  most 
cities  of  the  world;  but  in  this  great  granite  wilder- 
ness it  seems  but  the  chajjcl  in  a  nobleman's  palace. 

•  I'liilip  II.  was  liorii  1 527  ami  died  ic;c)8.      He  became  king  in  1556 
aiifl  tlicreltjre  afllitlcd  liis  touiilry  for  (ortytwo  years,      lie  outlived  four 

wives. 

I      •      I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

Windows  are  counted  by  the  hundreds,  resounding 
corridors  are  measured  by  miles.  In  the  cellars  alone 
appears  to  be  space  enough  for  many  royal  residences. 
The  visitor  to-day  sees  little  change  after  three  cen- 
turies— priests  are  now  in  possession  as  they  were 
from  the  very  beginning;  and,  after  marvelling  at  the 
amount  of  money  and  labor  represented  by  this  dreary 
pile,  one  leaves  it  with  a  sigh,  for  it  symbolizes  the  pride 
of  a  priest-ridden  and  unproductive  empire. 

Amidst  the  great  treasures  of  the  Escurial,  none  is 
more  precious  than  the  little  room  in  one  corner  of 
the  vast  building,  where  Philip  II.  received  ambassa- 
dors from  all  the  monarchs  of  the  world,  and  whence 
he  despatched  viceroys,  missionaries,  commanders  of 
armies,  to  Mexico,  Manila,  Cuba,  or  Peru.  This 
strange  little  room — no  larger  than  a  bed-chamber  in 
a  modern  hotel — was  kept  artificially  darkened,  that 
the  monarch  might  be  the  less  distracted  by  the  sight 
of  real  things.  While  the  blistering  summer  sun  was 
full  in  the  heavens,  lighting  up  the  Guadarrama  Moun- 
tains, and  while  flocks  of  sheep  and  goats  were  tinkhng 
their  little  bells  and  proclaiming  at  least  some  inno- 
cent life  in  this  ".stony-lonesome,"  the  monarch  of 
half  the  world  lit  his  little  lamp  in  a  black  alcove  and 
read  his  despatches,  or  indicted  instructions  for  the 
more  rapid  conversion  of  the  heathen.  Here  he  ruled 
over  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  half  the  human  race; 
here  were  decided  the  deHcate  questions  affecting 
the  prosperity  of  colonies,  questions  of  commerce, 
relations  of  master  and  servant,  land  legislation, 
navigation  acts,  taxation  in  every  form,  relative 
power  of  civil  and  military  officials — questions  which 

[    2    ] 


HOW   SPAIN    COLONIZED 

vexed  the  ablest  cabinets  even  when  assisted  by 
the  greatest  experts  in  all  branches  of  political 
economy. 

Philip  II.  shut  out  the  light  from  his  cell  in  the 
Escurial  and  consulted  with  minds  darkened  like  his 
own.  He  sought  guidance  among  his  fellow-monks, 
and  his  political  creed  took  no  wider  range  than  that 
of  his  father-confessor.  Whether  called  upon  to  make 
war  with  England  or  increase  the  poll  tax  in  Porto 
Rico,  to  encourage  emigration  or  limit  the  exports 
from  the  Philippines,  the  voice  that  determined  was 
the  voice  of  a  monk. 

Spain's  career  as  a  colonial  empire  lasted,  roughly, 
through  four  centuries.  Columbus  sailed  from  Spain 
in  1492  and  made  his  first  settlement  in  the  West  In- 
dies about  Christmas-time  of  that  year.  In  1493  he 
returned  and  presented  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  with  a 
New  World,  which  within  the  next  generation  was 
converted  into  an  annex  of  Spain,  reaching  from  the 
southern  edges  of  the  present  United  States  to  the 
northern  portions  of  what  are  now  the  Argentine  Re- 
public and  Chili.  From  the  first  discovery  of  Cuba  and 
Porto  Rico  to  that  day  in  which  the  Spanish  flag  was 
finally  driven  out  of  American  waters,  the  history  of 
Spain  constitutes  one  of  the  most  romantic  of  colonial 
chronicles,  full  of  interest  to  the  general  student,  and 
of  vital  concern  to  those  who  have  undertaken  the  task 
in  which  another  has  failed. 

It  is  worth  noting  that  SjKiin's  beginning  as  a  colo- 
nial power  was  coincident  with  the  expulsion  from  her 
soil  of  the  only  po()j)lc  who,  at  that  time,  were  com- 
petent to  deal  with  cfoiioniic  problems  from  a  purely 

[  3  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

profit-making  point  of  view.  The  Jews  were  then 
(1492),  as  they  have  been  for  generations,  the  money- 
lenders, the  brokers,  the  commercial  agents  of  the 
world — they  were  pre-eminently  fitted  to  be  the  mid- 
dlemen in  transactions  where  absence  of  political  and 
religious  passion  was  useful.  Spain,  at  that  time,  had 
a  population  of  only  four  and  one-half  millions,  dis- 
tributed over  a  territory  nearly  equal  to  that  of  France 
— roughly  200,000  square  miles. 

At  first  sight  it  would  not  seem  that  pressure  of 
population  had  anything  to  do  with  causing  her  to 
seek  an  expansion  of  territory,  unless  we  regard  as 
over-populated  every  country  that  is  badly  governed. 

When  Columbus  sailed  on  his  first  voyage,  Ferdi- 
nand *  and  Isabella  ruled  a  country  that  had  emerged 
victorious  from  a  long  war  of  the  white  man  against 
the  Moor — the  Church  of  Rome  against  the  infidel. 
Religious  fervor  and  the  flush  of  victories  in  war, 
united  with  love  of  plunder  in  producing  a  public  sen- 
timent ready  for  adventure  in  any  field  which  offered 
scope  for  the  missionary,  the  soldier,  the  government 
of^cial.  These  three  were  united  by  thirst  for  conquest 
— conquest  for  the  Church,  conquest  for  glory,  con- 
quest for  the  sake  of  plunder;  so  long  as  the  conquest 
was  successful,  the  father  confessor  was  apt  to  be  ac- 
commodating. 

Few  countries  have  achieved  so  much  for  glory  as 
Spain,  and  still  fewer  have  had  so  little  substance  to 
show  for  it.    At  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  agri- 

*  Ferdinand,  the  "  Catholic,"  was  born  in  1452  and  died  in  1 516.  He 
married  Isabella  in  1469.  She  died  in  1504.  This  king  established  the 
Inquisition  at  Seville  in  1480. 

[  4  ] 


HOW   SPAIN   COLONIZED 

culture  was  at  a  very  low  ebb;  Valencia  barely  raised 
one-third  of  what  she  required,  while  Catalonia  and 
Aragon  depended  almost  entirely  on  import  for  a 
supply.  It  is  the  irony  of  fate  that  while  Spain  gloried 
in  having  driven  away  the  Jews  and  the  Moors,  the 
traveller,  even  of  the  present  day,  notes  with  surprise 
that  it  is  to  the  magnificent  labors  of  infidels  that 
Christian  Spain  owes  most  of  the  irrigating  works 
that  sustain  her  present  population.  Carthaginians, 
Jews,  and  Moors  built  up  the  Spain  of  1492.  The 
generation  of  conquerors,  colonizers,  and  explorers 
was  the  legitimate  result  of  wars  waged  with  fanatic 
recklessness,  and  Spain  reached  the  zenith  of  her  glory 
at  the  outset  of  a  colonial  career  for  which  she  was 
but  feebly  equipped.  Her  conquest  of  the  Western 
World  was  achieved  within  the  lifetime  of  a  single  man, 
but  no  sooner  had  her  power  been  effectively  asserted 
than  she  commenced  to  govern  in  a  manner  which 
makes  us  marvel,  not  so  much  at  the  quantity  of  colo- 
nies she  has  lost,  but  at  the  fact  that  there  remained, 
in  1898,  any  for  her  to  lose. 

As  everyone  knows,  the  Pope,  Alexander  VI.,*  di- 
vided the  world  into  two  parts;  the  one  he  presented 
to  Portugal,  the  other  to  Spain.  This  was  a  species  of 
generosity  excellent  as  between  the  two  countries  im- 
mediately concerned,  but,  as  events  proved,  calculated 
to  make  trouble  when  English,  French,  and  Dutch 
slKjuld  develop  a  taste  for  far-away  venture. 

So,  while  Portuguese  sailors  sought  the  ICast  Indies, 

*  This  I'ope,  Horjjia  by  name,  ruled  the  so-called  Christian  world  from 
1402  to  1505.  -lie  ovv(;(l  liis  <)(Iic<;  to  bribery,  l)urne(l  Savoiiiiroia,  iiitro- 
(luL<-(l  lh<- cciisorslii|i  o(  l)(Mil<s,  \v;is  liiially  riiiiovcil  by  poisoii,  Iciivin^  be 
Iliad  several  illc^;iliniut<;cliil<bcii.    'I'liis  man  j^ave  the  vvurld  away  in  14<J{! 

I  5  J 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

Columbus  reached  the  West  Indies,  which  at  that  time 
he  beheved  to  be  a  portion  of  China  or  Japan. 

King  Ferdinand  took  httle  interest  in  Columbus. 
It  was  Isabella  who  really  discovered  America,  and 
considering,  therefore,  our  obligations  to  that  lady,  we, 
as  Americans,  need  offer  no  apology  to  those  who  ac- 
cuse us  of  worshipping  woman. 

The  pictures  of  Columbus  which  I  have  so  far  been 
able  to  see,  represent  him  as  pecuHarly  amiable,  if  not 
benevolent  in  appearance.  His  second  expedition, 
however,  in  1493,  was  fitted  out  by  appropriating  the 
confiscated  estates  of  banished  Jews.  But  this  was 
offset  by  the  Church's  advancing  him  a  portion  of  its 
tithes,  and  sending  to  the  New  World  an  Apostolic 
Vicar  and  eleven  Benedictine  friars. 

Already,  on  his  third  expedition,  Columbus  sug- 
gested that  the  natives  of  the  West  Indies,  the  gentle 
Caribs,  should  be  sold  as  slaves,  in  order  to  raise  money 
for  the  Government,  and  in  1494  five  hundred  were 
brought  to  Spain  and  sold.  Slave  auctions  of  Caribbee 
Indians  became  an  institution  in  Seville,  but  the  money 
raised  did  not  by  any  means  make  up  for  the  chests 
of  gold  and  precious  stones  that  Columbus  had  led 
his  friends  at  home  to  expect. 

Cuba,  Hayti,  Porto  Rico,  Jamaica — these  were  sore 
disappointments  to  the  first  arrivals,  who  found  huts 
of  reeds  where  they  had  anticipated  treasure  houses 
of  nabobs.  It  was  a  blow  to  those  pioneers  when 
they  realized  that  colonization  involved  the  tilling  of 
the  soil  under  a  sun  not  hotter,  but  much  more  per- 
sistent, than  that  even  of  Madrid  or  Alicante. 

The  instructions  to  Columbus  had  been  very  ex- 
[  6  ] 


HOW    SPAIN    COLONIZED 

plicit  as  to  the  importance  of  converting  the  natives 
to  Christianity,  and  while  the  Church  Iiad  some  scru- 
ples regarding  slavery  when  applied  to  those  of  its  own 
faith,  the  Pope  looked  upon  it  as  a  fair  punishment  for 
those  who  remained  heretic.  Of  course  it  would  have 
been  most  inconvenient  had  all  the  natives  turned 
Christian,  for  then  there  would  have  been  an  end  to 
slavery.  So  the  natives  were  hunted  down  by  blood- 
hounds; they  were  addressed  in  Spanish,  and  they 
answered  in  Caribbee.  The  white  slave-raider  swore 
that  the  Carib  had  refused  to  become  a  Christian, 
while  the  poor  Carib  knew  nothing  of  what  was  ex- 
pected of  him.  In  any  event,  the  white  man's  word 
was  taken,  the  Carib  was  branded,  sold  as  a  slave,  and 
thus  was  laid  the  foundation  of  Spain's  colonial  fort- 
une. From  the  very  outset  Columbus  inaugurated 
the  policy  that  every  Indian  owed  more  or  less  of  his 
labor  to  the  white  man,  without  remuneration,  and 
that  policy  was  not  reversed  until  Admiral  Dewey 
trained  his  twelve-inch  guns  upon  Manila  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1898. 

And  yet  the  early  regulations  sounded  moderate 
enough — they  were  at  least  sanctioned  by  the  Chris- 
tian Church  of  the  day.  Every  native  over  fourteen 
years  old  was  required  to  deliver  quarterly  either  so 
much  gold  or  so  much  cotton,  according  to  the  neigh- 
borhood, and  in  return  he  received  a  copper  medal  by 
way  of  receipt.  Of  course,  if  he  could  not  show  this 
evidence  f)f  labor  pcrfonnod.  he  was  punished  in 
any  way  tliat  his  vvliilo  master  thouglil  iiiosl  prolU- 
able. 

In  1497  Columbus  found  so  nuicb  dilliculty  in  at- 
[  7  I 


THE   CHILDREN    OF   THE   NATIONS 

tracting  free  men  to  the  New  World  that  a  law  was 
passed,  at  his  request,  by  which  he  was  able  to  recruit 
his  colony  from  the  prisons.  So  in  that  year  Colum- 
bus had  to  sail  back  to  the  New  World  with  two  hun- 
dred criminals  as  his  only  recruits. 

The  history  of  Columbus  is  familiar  to  us  all,  and 
we  need  here  only  note  that  after  eight  years  of  labor 
as  a  discoverer,  explorer,  colonist,  and  conqueror,  he 
was,  in  1500,  taken  back  to  Spain  as  a  prisoner.  He 
was  stripped  of  his  honors,  his  petitions  were  unan- 
swered. He  died  of  a  broken  heart  in  Valladolid  in 
1506,  surviving  Queen  Isabella  by  two  years. 

The  house  in  which  he  died,  No.  7  Calle  de  Colon, 
is  so  well  preserved  that  it  seems  to  be  modern,  and  of 
course  it  is  a  shrine  to  which  the  American  traveller 
to-day  makes  reverent  pilgrimage. 

The  men  who  made  Spain  great  in  those  days  ex- 
cited envy  amongst  their  contemporaries;  but  few 
form  an  exception  to  the  general  rule  that  success 
is  more  difficult  to  bear  than  misfortune.  Commenc- 
ing with  Columbus,  who  was  sent  home  from  the  New 
World  in  chains,  there  are  very  few  whose  closing 
years  can  excite  in  us  other  feelings  than  pity.  Bal- 
boa, who  discovered  the  Pacific,  lost  his  head  at  the 
age  of  forty-two.  Cortes  was  disgraced  and  impris- 
oned, and  the  conquest  of  Mexico  did  not  save  him 
from  dying  a  disappointed  man.  De  Soto,  who  dis- 
covered the  Mississippi,  was  carried  away  by  swamp 
fever  in  1541,  and  in  the  same  year  Pizarro  was  killed 
by  his  own  people.  It  is  difficult  to  name  one  of  the 
great  Spanish  conquerors  whose  life  was  not  embit- 
tered to  him  by  the  suspicion  and  jealousy  of  those 

[  8  ] 


HOW    SPAIN    COLONIZED 

whom  he  was  serving  in  Madrid,  or  by  the  treachery 
of  his  fellow-adventurers.  The  worst  that  befell  the 
British  conquerors  in  India  was  mild,  indeed,  com- 
pared with  the  average  treatment  meted  out  to  the 
noblest  sons  of  Spain  in  the  days  when  her  court  was 
most  completely  influenced  by  the  Christian  Church. 
Clive  and  Warren  Hastings  in  their  darkest  hours 
would  have  hesitated  to  change  places  with  Cortes  or 
Columbus. 

SLAVERY 

Ferdinand  was  a  pious  and  humane  man  so  long 
as  his  piety  did  not  conflict  with  his  pocket.  By  a 
quaint  course  of  reasoning  he  was  made  to  see  that 
while  it  was  wicked  to  enslave  Indians  who  recognized 
him  as  their  king,  it  was  quite  correct  to  make  slaves 
of  Africans  to  whom  he  had  granted  no  royal  privi- 
lege. In  1 50 1  negro  slavery  first  made  its  appearance 
in  America,  and  from  that  time  on  it  has  divided  the 
sentiment  of  priest  and  layman  alike  in  every  part  of 
the  world  where  one  man  has  been  privileged  to  ex- 
ploit the  labor  of  another. 

The  Church  thundered  against  slavery  in  the  ab- 
stract, but  amongst  Blacks  or  Caribs  they  found 
plausible  pretexts  for  an  institution  which  has  since 
been  defended  by  the  united  Protestant  clergy  of  many 
English  and  American  states,  to  say  nothing  of  Puri- 
tan pastors  in  the  land  of  Paul  Kruger.  y\s  early  as 
1495  we  read  in  the  Papal  Bull  this  message  to  mis- 
sionaries: 

"  You  shall  persuade  the  people  who  inliabit  these  isl- 
ands and  ccjiitiiicnts  to  aeeept  the  (hrisliaii  faith. 

I   W   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

"  We  impress  upon  you  .  .  .  according  to  your 
promise  ...  to  select  honourable  men,  and  send 
them  to  these  continents  and  islands — men  who  fear  God 
— who  are  instructed,  clever,  and  suitable  for  the  purpose 
of  teaching  the  Catholic  doctrine  to  the  inhabitants,  and 
to  bring  them  up  in  good  habits." 

In  her  last  will,  Isabella  enjoined  humane  treatment 
for  the  Indians,  while,  at  the  same  time,  urging  their 
conversion  to  Christianity. 

But  those  who  most  generously  pleaded  for  kind 
treatment  were  inclined  to  extenuate  slavery,  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  better  for  a  heathen  to  be  the  slave 
of  a  Christian  than  to  run  loose  without  hope  of  sal- 
vation. In  1509,  three  years  after  the  death  of  his 
father,  the  eldest  son  of  Columbus  was  sent  to  America 
and  inaugurated  such  a  slave-hunting  as  scandalized 
even  the  colonial  monks  of  the  day.  Under  him  Ind- 
ian and  African  slavery  flourished.  In  order -to  get 
a  pretext  for  raiding  the  Indians,  he  would  issue  a 
proclamation  calling  upon  a  whole  tribe  to  become 
Christian,  and  then,  without  waiting  to  incjuire  whether 
that  particular  tribe  understood  its  language  or  pur- 
port, he  would  send  a  detachment  of  soldiers  to  make 
war  upon  them  and  bring  back  the  prisoners  in  chains. 

We  must  be  careful,  in  studying  the  history  of  four 
centuries  ago,  to  make  due  allowance  for  difference  in 
custom,  and  to  judge  men  by  standards  of  their  own 
time  and  state  of  society.  Let  us  inquire,  therefore, 
to  what  extent  the  treatment  of  the  natives  in  the  West 
Indies  was  sustained  by  the  sentiment  either  of  the 
Spanish  people  or  the  Church  which  controlled  the 
Court. 

[  10  I 


HOW   SPAIN    COLONIZED 

In  1 510  some  fourteen  Dominican  monks  came  to 
San  Domingo  and  at  once  commenced  to  preach  in 
public  against  the  cruelties  practised  toward  the  na- 
tives. It  is  to  their  credit  that  they  were  the  first 
religious  order  that  openly  protested  against  slavery 
in  the  New  World.  The  new  Governor,  Columbus, 
cared  as  little  for  the  letter  of  his  instructions  as  did 
King  Ferdinand.  That  Christian  monarch  had  urged 
the  Governor  to  send  him  money:  ''  Get  money — by 
merciful  means  if  possible — but  get  it!  " 

Columbus  knew  that  anything  would  be  forgiven 
provided  gold  was  procured;  but  that  nothing  could 
atone  for  an  empty  chest. 

So  slave-raiding  went  on — even  to  the  neighboring 
Bahamas.  There  the  unsuspicious  natives  were  coaxed 
aboard  ship  by  promises  of  presents,  and,  when  once 
aboard,  were  seized,  manacled,  and  carried  away  to 
slavery. 

Before  the  Spaniards  had  been  eighteen  years  in  the 
West  Indies,  colonial  public  sentiment  had  become 
"  educated  "  on  the  subject  of  slavery  as  completely 
as  it  ever  became  in  after  years  either  in  South  Caro- 
lina or  South  Africa.  Every  colonist  understood  that 
under  slavery  his  plantation  would  pay,  and  that  with- 
out it  he  would  be  a  loser.  Every  priest  realized  that 
under  slavery  his  parishioners  could  afford  handsome 
tithes,  but  that  under  free  labor  they  would  all  be  poor 
together.  The  Crown  officials  saw  in  slavery  a  means 
(A  getting  rich  tribute  to  the  mother  country,  and  also 
an  easy  way  of  keeping  in  order  a  population  that 
might  otherwise  be  making  mischief. 

Is  it  strange,  therefore,  that  in  the  midst  of  such  a 
[    II    I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

community,  the  governor,  the  priest,  the  soldier,  and 
the  colonist  miited  in  drawing  the  conclusion  that  God 
intended  the  Indian  to  be  the  white  man's  slave? 

Now  there  is  nothing  new  in  this  growth  of  public 
sentiment  in  favor  of  slavery.  Wherever  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  community  have  found  it  to  their  interest 
to  keep  slaves,  there  have  never  been  wanting  min- 
isters of  the  Gospel  ready  to  prove  from  the  pulpit 
that  slavery  was  a  divine  institution. 

It  took  courage  of  no  common  order  for  a  priest 
to  preach,  in  1510,  "  abolition  "  sermons  in  the  midst 
of  a  slave  colony  like  San  Domingo. 

As  might  have  been  anticipated,  the  colonists  were 
highly  indignant;  they  posted  a  Franciscan  monk  off 
to  Spain  to  make  representations  against  the  meddle- 
some Dominican.  But  the  Dominican  was  also  good 
at  diplomacy,  and  sailed  for  Spain  in  the  same  ship. 

At  first  Ferdinand  would  not  see  the  "  abolition  " 
monk.  He  wanted  money,  and  was  much  vexed  that 
this  Dominican  interfered  between  him  and  his  profits. 
But  the  Dominican  procured  strong  clerical  backing, 
and  finally  was  admitted  to  an  audience.  He  unfolded 
such  a  tale  of  cruelty  that  even  Ferdinand  for  a  mo- 
ment forgot  his  share  in  the  iniquitous  traffic  and  lis- 
tened sympathetically  to  the  friar's  tale — how,  for  in- 
stance, a  Spaniard  had  tossed  a  two-year-old  Indian 
baby  into  the  water  out  of  wantonness,  and  watched  it 
drown  as  though  it  had  been  a  useless  kitten,  and  no 
punishment  inflicted  upon  the  white  master! 

Ferdinand  did  what  all  weak  rulers  do — he  shifted 
the  responsibility  from  his  own  shoulders  to  those  of 
others;  in  other  w^ords,  he  appointed  a  committee  to 

[  12  ] 


HOW   SPAIN   COLONIZED 

inquire — a  species  of  whitewashing  commission,  which 
has  since  become  fashionable  in  high  poHtical  circles. 

This  commission  was  made  up  of  priests  and  cour- 
tiers who  brought  in  the  sort  of  reform  that  Ferdinand 
desired.  They  denounced  slavery  in  the  abstract — 
advocated  humane  measures  in  the  abstract  —  did 
everything  that  was  Christian  in  the  abstract — but  in 
the  concrete,  left  everything  as  it  was.  The  Indians 
must  be  converted,  and  those  who  refused  should  be 
made  slaves! 

And  our  knowledge  of  human  nature  assures  us  that 
this  loophole  was  sufficient  for  the  slave-owning  plant- 
ers of  the  West  Indies. 

In  1 5 12  this  new  law  was  passed.  It  altered  noth- 
ing, but  it  enabled  Ferdinand  to  confess  with  more 
ease,  because  the  theological  junta  had  assured  him 
that  now  his  conscience  was  clear  on  the  subject  of 
slavery. 

The  good  Dominican  friar  enjoyed  an  academic  sort 
of  triumph — what  the  artistic  world  calls  a  succcs 
(Testimc — a  triumph  in  name,  but  not  in  fact.  It  was 
even  reported  that  his  impassioned  eloquence  had  con- 
verted the  hostile  Franciscan  into  becoming  an  aboli- 
tionist. At  any  rate,  whatever  might  have  been  the 
efifect  of  the  Dominican's  efforts  on  the  minds  of  the 
people  in  Spain,  they  had  scant  effect  in  the  colo- 
nies. 

The  statistics  of  the  day  represented  Ilispaniola 
(San  Domingo)  as  containing  a  largo  population  in 
1492.  In  1508  the  number  had  sunk  from  ihe  neigh- 
borhood of  a  million  to  70,000;  in  1510,  to  40,000; 
in  1514,  to  13.000 — practical  extermination  1 

\   13  1 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  NATIONS 

Another  friend  of  the  Indians  rose  up  in  the  person 
of  the  great  Dominican,  Las  Casas,  the  son  of  one 
who  had  sailed  with  Columbus  to  the  New  World.  In 
1502  he  came  to  Hispaniola  as  a  priest,  and  soon  be- 
came a  slave-driving  planter  like  the  rest.  But  his 
conscience  pricked  him  one  day  and  he  Hberated  his 
slaves  and  devoted  himself  from  that  time  on  to  philan- 
thropy. He  worked  during  his  whole  life  and  died  at 
the  age  of  ninety-two  respected  by  all  who  knew  of 
him  and  his  work;  but,  so  far  as  the  natives  them- 
selves were  concerned,  his  influence  w'as  very 
httle. 

After  much  difficulty  he  secured  an  audience  of  Fer- 
dinand in  1 5 15 — thanks  to  the  intercession  of  the 
father-confessor;  but,  though  he  pleaded  eloquently, 
Ferdinand  did  as  little  in  this  case  as  in  that  of  the 
other  Dominican.  Las  Casas  was  referred  to  the  head 
of  the  Colonial  Department,  a  Bishop  of  the  Church, 
and  to  him  he  related  how  7,000  Indian  children  had 
died  in  three  months!  The  Bishop's  answer  was, 
merely: 

"  What  business  is  that  of  mine — or  the  King?  " 

Then  Las  Casas  burst  forth: 

"  Is  it  then  no  business  of  your  Grace  or  the 
King  that  all  these  souls  are  lost?  Great  and  ever- 
lasting God!  Whose  business  is  it  then?"  Ferdi- 
nand died  in  the  following  year  and,  no  doubt,  met 
in  Heaven  some  of  the  souls  for  w^hom  he  had  had 
little  time  to  trouble  himself  here  below.  Ferdinand 
was  like  many  another  weak  mortal;  he  would  have 
been  honest  had  he  been  rich  enough  to  afford  such 
luxury. 

[  14] 


HOW   SPAIN   COLONIZED 

In  1 516,  the  great  Charles  V.,*  at  the  age  of  six- 
teen, became  King  of  Spain,  and  soon  thereafter  (1520) 
Emperor  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire.  During  his 
minority  the  Government  was  in  the  hands  of  Cardinal 
Ximenes,  a  name  associated  with  much  refined  cruelty 
perpetrated  under  the  cloak  of  the  Inquisition.  His 
palace  is  to-day  the  home  of  the  British  Ambassador 
in  Madrid.  A  subterranean  passage  leads  beneath  the 
street  from  this  house  to  what  was  the  torture  cham- 
ber. The  house  of  the  Cardinal  remains  to-day  al- 
most as  it  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. The  rooms  are  mostly  little  cells  for  monks,  with 
doors  in  which  a  little  hole  is  cut,  that  those  outside 
may  occasionally  peer  through  to  see  what  the  brother 
friar  is  doing. 

Ximenes  had  large  views  for  a  man  of  his  time  and 
supported  Las  Casas.  This  was  not  so  much  because 
this  Grand  Inquisitor  could  not  stand  human  suffering, 
but  as  a  statesman  he  looked  with  alarm  upon  the 
gradual  depopulation  of  his  master's  colonies.  He 
legislated  regarding  Caribbee  Indians  as  a  forester 
would  regarding  those  who  destroyed  wantonly  a  valu- 
able grove  of  trees. 

But  Charles  V.  needed  money  quite  as  much  as  did 
Ferdinand — perhaps  more.  Even  as  mere  King  of 
Spain  Charles  had  none  too  much,  but  his  vanity  and 
colonial  possessions  had  impelled  him  to  seek  an  im- 
perial throne  in  Europe  as  well  as  in  America;  and  the 
expenditure  connected  with  this  new  dignity — heavy 

*  Charles  V.  was  born  in  1500  in  Flanders,  and  died  in  iji^S  ;  tliouph 
lw(j  years  before,  he  abdicated  and  retired  to  the  monastery  of  Juste. 
This  is  the  man  who  presided  at  the  trial  of  Martin  Luther  at  Worms,  in 
1521. 

[  IS] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

enough  to  a  rich  country — was  almost  crushing  to  one 
as  poor  as  Spain.  It  was  from  the  New  World  that 
Charles  sought  the  money  to  sustain  his  new  honors; 
and  with  pressing  creditors  at  his  gates,  he  could  not 
afford  to  examine  too  minutely  the  means  by  which 
he  was  enabled  to  make  his  reign  brilliant.  His  father- 
confessor  soothed  him  by  saying  that  the  important 
thing  was  the  object  on  which  the  gold  was  spent, 
rather  than  the  means  employed  in  securing  it.  And, 
therefore,  we  note  throughout  these  years  constant 
efforts  by  noble  men  like  Las  Casas,  and  an  equally 
constant  abstract  interest  in  humanity  expressed  by 
the  Crown;  humane  laws  passed,  but  never  enforced. 
The  natives  are  always  to  be  treated  gently,  but  always 
to  do  what  the  white  man  wishes! 

Las  Casas  was  named  Protector  of  the  IndianL.  He 
might  as  well  have  been  named  protector  of  the  polar 
bears ! 

A  Franciscan  monk  who  accompanied  Pedraria's 
expedition  to  Darien,  in  15 14,  wrote  that  the  whole 
country  was  pillaged  and  laid  waste;  that  no  cruelty 
or  treachery  was  omitted  in  order  to  procure  gold  or 
slaves;  that  in  one  raid  alone,  40,000  Indians  were  de- 
stroyed. Pedraria  also  bore  instructions  to  be  gentle 
with  the  native! 

The  manner  in  which  Cuba  was  originally  con- 
quered and  colonized  is  a  fitting  pendant  to  her  con- 
dition under  Weyler  in  1898.  In  151 1  the  Chartered 
Company  of  Seville — a  trade  monopoly  for  the  Ameri- 
can colonies — decided  to  conquer  Cuba,  using  His- 
paniola  (San  Domingo)  as  a  base.  So  it  sent  off  to  that 
island  three  hundred  volunteers,  who  had  no  other  ob- 

[  16  ] 


HOW   SPAIN    COLONIZED 

ject  than  plunder.  They  landed  and  commenced  to 
call  upon  the  natives  to  recognize  the  Christian  religion 
and  submit.  The  Cuban  natives  were,  however,  less 
inclined  to  submit  than  those  of  San  Domingo — no 
doubt,  news  of  Spanish  rule  in  San  Domingo  had  pre- 
ceded this  missionary  enterprise.  But  the  natives  were 
finally  beaten,  and  their  chief  taken  prisoner.  He  was 
brought  before  the  Spanish  conqueror  and  ordered  to 
turn  Christian  before  he  should  be  put  to  death.  The 
chief  wanted  to  know  what  good  it  would  do  him  to 
turn  Christian  at  such  a  late  hour  in  the  day. 

He  was  told  that  by  turning  Christian  he  would 
secure  access  to  Heaven. 

"  Should  I  meet  any  Spaniards  in  Heaven?  "  asked 
the  Cuban. 

"  Certainly,"  answered  the  priest. 

"  Then  I'd  rather  go  somewhere  else!  "  said  the  sim- 
ple savage. 

Cuba  was  not  colonized  until  nineteen  years  after 
the  date  of  Columbus's  first  voyage,  but  from  the  out- 
set it  became  a  place  of  prime  commercial,  strategic, 
and  agricultural  importance,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
it  did  not  attract  so  much  attention  as  those  colonies 
in  which  precious  metals  were  abundant. 

Already,  in  1518,  there  were  eight  white  settlements 
on  the  island,  and  in  the  following  year  the  colony 
felt  strong  enough  to  fit  out  an  expedition  (of  Cortes) 
to  the  mainland.  'J'hc  first  Cuban  (lovernor,  Velas- 
quez, inaugurated  his  rule  on  the  plan  which  subse- 
(|uently  prevailed  with  baneful  monottjiiy  throughout 
Spanish  America.  Tin-  land  was  divided  up  among 
the  white  settlers,  willioul   asking  permission  of  the 

I  •;  I 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  NATIONS 

Indians.  The  Crown,  of  course,  reserved  all  rights  not 
distinctly  parted  with.  Then  the  natives  were  made 
to  work  for  the  whites.  If  they  declined,  they  were 
hunted  down  and  enslaved,  on  the  plea  that  they  were 
obstinate  heathen.  But  the  Cuban  Indians  made 
much  trouble,  and  the  colony  finally  concluded  that 
in  the  long  run  it  was  cheaper  to  get  negroes  from 
Africa,  than  to  have  the  expense  of  constantly  fighting 
among  the  natives.  So,  from  1522  on,  extermina- 
tion commenced.  It  was  a  job  soon  done.  The  black 
man  took  the  place  of  the  copper-colored  one — that 
was  all! 


[  18] 


II 

THE   FIRST   CHECK   TO   SPANISH    COLONI- 
ZATION 

*'  We   believe   to   be   the   most  frightful  of  all  spectacles — the 
strength  of  civilization  without  its  mercy.'''' 

—  Macaulay,  "Clive." 

The  Reformation — A  Conflict  between  Germanic  and  Latin  Ideas 
— Conquest  of  Peru — Spain's  Constant  Need  of  Gold 

IN  1 5 19  an  obscure  monk  in  a  North  German  clois- 
ter brooded  and  brooded  with  Teutonic  thorough- 
ness, until  at  length  the  courage  came  to  him  from 
on  high  and  he  challenged  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
in  the  name  of  religious  liberty.  His  voice  found  an 
echo  throughout  Northern  Europe,  at  the  courts  of  rul- 
ing princes,  among  the  scholars  of  Leyden  and  Hei- 
delberg, and  above  all  among  the  rude  but  reflective 
peasantry — to  whose  hearts  the  rugged  speech  of  Mar- 
tin Luther  found  immediate  access.  Papal  excommu- 
nication and  threats  of  violence  only  strengthened  the 
force  of  this  great  awakening.  Every  courier  brought 
to  Rome  news  of  fresh  disaster  to  the  army  of  infallibil- 
ity, new  concjucsts  for  Protestantism;  until,  from  the 
North  Cape  downward,  the  avalanche  of  heretical  ele- 
ments promised  to  overflow  the  Alps  and  the  Pyrenees. 
The  danger  was  great,  and  Rome  realized  it.  At  such 
a  crisis  the  weak  and  the  lazy  were  thrust  aside  and  new 
men  with  more  youthful  energy  and  broader  knowl- 

I    i<)   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

edge  of  the  world  were  permitted  to  come  forward  as 
the  champions  of  papal  authority  against  those  whom 
they  regarded  as  impious  rebels.  In  Italy  and  Spain 
the  act  of  the  Wittenberg  monk  was  received  as  an  in- 
sult to  the  Latin  race.  There  were  plenty  in  the  papal 
ranks  who  desired  reform,  who  believed  that  the 
Church  should  take  the  lead  in  spreading  scholarship 
and  scientific  truth,  no  less  than  theology  and  morality. 
The  birth  of  Protestantism  brought  with  it  a  new  force 
in  Roman  Catholic  development,  a  force  that  was 
based  upon  knowledge  of  the  world,  mastery  of  the  sci- 
ences, social  polish,  fluency  in  speech,  diplomatic  tact 
— ^in  short,  every  art  that  assists  one  man  in  dominat- 
ing the  mind  of  another.  This  force  alone  meant  refor- 
mation to  no  small  extent,  but  when  to  all  this  was 
linked  the  daring  and  fanatic  zeal  of  a  Loyola,*  then 
was  created  the  one  force  capable  of  setting  bounds 
to  Luther's  work.  The  great  Reformation  had  a 
political  and  intellectual  side  no  less  important  than  its 
theological  one. 

The  citizen  of  London  resented  the  domination  of 
an  Italian  priest,  though  he  willingly  accepted  an  equal 
amount  of  tyranny  from  one  of  his  own  race.  The 
thinking  men  of  Rotterdam  and  Stockholm,  of  Leip- 
zig and  Bremen,  were  not  cast  in  the  same  mould  as 
the  father-confessors  from  beyond  the  Alps.  National 
antipathy,  race  antipathy,  united  with  intellectual  an- 
tipathy to  weaken  papal  authority  over  Northern  Eu- 
rope and  concentrate  it  nearer  to  the  centre  of  its 

*  Loyola  was  born  in  1491  and  died  in  1556;  a  Spaniard  by  birth,  a 
courtier  by  education,  a  soldier  by  profession;  who  became  "  General  " 
of  the  Society  of  J«sus  in  1 541  and  infused  the  soldier  spirit  among  his 
followers. 

[    20] 


CHECK   TO   SPANISH   COLONIZATION 

origin.  Henceforth  the  quarrel  with  Luther  resembled 
somewhat  a  war  of  Latin  against  Anglo-Saxon  or 
Germanic  civilization.  Since  the  close  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War  (1648)  the  area  of  Protestantism  has  not 
increased  appreciably,  nor  has  that  of  Rome.  But  in 
America  the  Pope  found  compensation.  The  con- 
quests of  Protestantism  in  Northern  Europe  were,  in 
the  mind  of  Charles  V.,  to  be  more  than  matched  by 
the  triumph  of  the  Cross  in  the  vast  territories  that 
had  been  confided  to  him  by  Pope  Borgia. 

The  year  15 19,  the  year  of  Martin  Luther,  was  also 
the  year  of  Fernando  Cortes.  What  the  Pope  lost  in 
Saxony,  Spain  was  conquering  in  Mexico. 

It  was  in  March  of  15 19  that  Cortes  landed  on  the 
Mexican  coast  in  Tabasco  with  550  white  men,  2,300 
Indians,  some  horses,  cannon,  and  negroes.  Of  these 
only  three  hundred  whites  started  into  the  interior. 
Cortes  had  besides,  fifteen  mounted  men,  seven 
pieces  of  artillery  and  1,300  native  soldiers.  Many  of 
his  men  had  refused  to  go  with  him  and  while  we  are 
not  disposed  to  detract  from  the  glory  of  this  soldier, 
we  are  inclined  to  think  that  he  displayed  more  cour- 
age in  managing  his  own  men  than  in  the  subjugation 
of  Montezuma. 

The  Mexicans  had  never  seen  a  horse  or  a  man  in 
armor,  or  a  firearm  of  any  description.  They  had 
no  weapons  that  were  in  any  sense  half-way  ecjual  to 
those  of  Cortes,  their  country  was  divided  by  civil 
war,  and  their  religious  teachers  had  spread  among 
them  the  fear  (jf  this  invasion.  'IMicy  were  morally 
beaten  before  the  contest  commenced,  and  if  at  any 
stage   they   fought,   it    was   the    fight    of   nun    niade 

L  --'•   J 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

desperate  by  injustice,  who  fight  not  in  the  hope  of 
victory,  but  merely  to  make  the  tyrant  pay  dearly  for 
his  triumph. 

The  courage  of  Cortes  was  great,  but  those  inter- 
ested in  comparing  relative  bravery  might  with  profit 
compare  the  conqueror  of  Mexico  with  the  man  who 
won  India  for  the  British  Crown.  When  Clive,  with 
only  two  hundred  Englishmen  and  three  hundred 
Sepoys,  marched  out  to  the  relief  of  Arcot  in  1751, 
it  was  to  meet  disciplined  armies  commanded  by  Eu- 
ropeans, armed  as  w^ell  as  himself,  famous  as  horse- 
men, and  familiar  with  the  white  man's  methods.  No 
superstitious  awe  cowed  the  natives  of  East  India, 
who,  when  they  laid  down  their  arms,  submitted  not 
as  to  a  God,  but  to  a  man  superior  to  them  in  courage, 
in  physical  power,  in  organizing  capacity,  and,  above 
all,  in  knowledge  of  government. 

Clive  entered  India  as  a  scourge:  he  left  it  amid  the 
tears  of  grateful  natives. 

The  Spaniard  entered  Mexico  as  a  guest,  he  re- 
mained as  a  scourge,  and  he  left  it  after  three  cen- 
turies of  misrule,  amid  the  curses  of  an  outraged  peo- 
ple. 

Slavery  entered  Mexico  with  Cortes  and  flourished 
from  the  start.  The  noble  Las  Casas,  in  hopes  of  bet- 
tering the  lot  of  the  Indians,  had  urged  Charles  V.  to 
encourage  negro  slavery  instead,  and  to  supplement 
this  by  emigration  of  white  labor.  Negro  slavery  was 
indeed  furthered,  but  Indian  slavery  did  not  cease,  nor 
was  any  encouragement  given  to  white  labor,  for,  of 
course,  no  white  Spaniard  would  work  in  the  hot  sun 
when  Indians  could  be  made  to  work  for  him.     Thus 

[  22  ] 


CHECK   TO   SPANISH   COLONIZATION 

Las  Casas,  one  of  the  great  ''  humanitarians,"  is  prac- 
tically the  father  of  the  African  slave-trade. 

Charles  V.  caused  inquiry  to  be  made  as  to  how 
many  negroes  would  be  needed  in  the  West  Indies,  and 
the  Seville  Chartered  Company  answered  that  4,000 
in  all  would  be  sufficient — 1,000  for  each  of  the  islands, 
— Jamaica,  San  Domingo,  Porto  Rico,  and  Cuba.  (In 
parenthesis  let  us  note  that  in  1870  the  number  of 
black  slaves  in  Cuba  alone  was  360,000.) 

The  license  to  import  the  4,000  Africans  was  given 
to  a  Court  favorite  and  he  in  turn  sold  it  to  a  Genoese 
broker  for  25,000  ducats,  or  about  $56,000.  This 
sum  purchased  a  monopoly  of  the  American  slave-trade 
for  eight  years.  The  Genoese  broker,  however,  had 
an  interest  in  keeping  up  the  price  of  negroes,  so  he 
only  supplied  a  small  quantity  at  a  time.  This  did  not 
at  all  satisfy  the  planters,  who  met  this  deficit  by  vig- 
orous slave-raiding  among  the  native  Caribs.  It 
illustrates  the  sentiment  of  the  time,  that  while  Las 
Casas  was  urging  Charles  V.  to  abolish  slavery 
among  Indians,  the  Bishop  of  Darien  was  proving  to 
this  same  monarch  that  these  very  natives  had  been 
intended  by  the  Almighty  as  slaves.  No  wonder  that 
the  "  most  Catholic  "  monarch  was  puzzled  when  the 
Church  itself  showed  doubt!  So  he  passed  laws  which 
sustained  Las  Casas  in  theory,  while  in  practice  slavery 
spread  unchecked — b(3th  Black  and  Indian. 

The  plantation  system  in  Mexico  was  similar  to  that 
which  was  inaugurated  in  the  islands;  estates  were 
given  to  settlers,  and  these  settlers  had  to  cultivate 
them  for  eight  years  before  they  got  a  clear  title  from 
the  Crown.    '1  he  Church  entered  uj)on  this  new  lield 

[  23  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

with  zeal,  and  in  thirty  years  claimed  to  have  made 
9,000,000  converts.  These  figures  are  open  to  ques- 
tion, but  however  they  may  be  modified,  there  is  no 
reason  to  doubt  that,  in  the  absence  of  any  compet- 
ing religious  denomination,  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  did  make  substantial  progress  in  Mexico. 

Mexico  had  not  been  conquered  more  than  five 
years  when  an  expedition  w'as  fitted  out  to  conquer 
Peru  (1524).  Pizarro  was  to  command  the  fighting 
force,  but  the  profits  were  to  be  shared  by  a  little 
syndicate  consisting  of  three  people — one  of  them  the 
Vicar  of  Panama.  In  1526  a  written  agreement  was 
drawn  up  on  the  subject,  securing  to  each  of  the  three 
financial  promoters  his  portion  of  the  expected  plun- 
der. Each  w^as  to  have  his  share  of  profit  from  the 
slave-trade.  The  Vicar,  who  had  advanced  20,000 
pesos  (dollars)  toward  fitting  out  the  expedition,  was 
to  receive  one-third  of  all  the  land  and  treasure  and 
slaves  they  might  secure.  Pizarro  promised  to  make 
good  any  losses  the  Vicar  might  sustain.  He  had  to 
be  very  careful  with  the  Vicar,  for  it  was  known  that 
this  holy  man  represented  some  capital  subscribed  by 
the  Chief  Justice,  who  was  forbidden  by  law  from  ap- 
pearing in  such  transactions.  It  was  also  necessary  to 
interest  the  Governor  in  the  enterprise,  and  that  meant 
another  share  in  the  concern.  However,  by  joint  effort 
of  these  three,  Pizarro  started  out  for  Peru,  with  the 
blessing  of  the  Church,  the  protection  of  the  law,  and 
the  good-will  of  the  Governor.  That  time  all  went  well 
with  Pizarro.* 

"  Pizarro  was  the  illegitimate  son  of  a  Spanish  officer.  He  was  born 
about  1471,  and  was  murdered  by  his  own  people  in  his  seventieth  year. 
It  is  not  known  how  or  when  he  came  to  America. 

[    24    ] 


CHECK   TO   SPANISH   COLONIZATION 

On  his  preliminary  journey  the  natives  received  him 
with  hospitaUty,  and  he  returned  full  of  plans  for  the 
enslaving  of  that  unsuspecting  people. 

First  he  went  to  Madrid,  where  he  retailed  his  dis- 
covery and  was  made  Governor-General  with  all  sorts 
of  privileges.  The  Vicar  was  made  a  bishop,  and  the 
King  made  him  out  a  patent  enjoining  above  all  things 
gentleness  toward  the  natives! 

Pizarro  promised  everything,  and  sailed  away  in 
1 531  to  the  conquest  of  Peru. 

Skipping  details  (which  are  interestingly  narrated 
by  Prescott),  in  1532,  with  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
seven  soldiers  and  sixty-seven  horses,  Pizarro  at  last 
met  the  Inca  at  Caxamalca.  His  patent  was  dated 
1529,  and  the  interval  had  been  devoted  to  getting 
thus  far,  by  a  course  of  plundering  raids  that  had  as- 
tonished the  natives. 

The  Inca  came  forth  to  meet  Pizarro  unarmed.  He 
was  surrounded  by  his  Court  dignitaries,  and  the  great 
square  was  crowded  by  the  curious.  He  was  led  to 
expect  a  meeting  with  Pizarro,  but,  instead  of  that,  a 
Dominican  monk  came  toward  him,  a  book  in  one 
hand,  in  the  other  a  crucifix.  In  a  loud  voice  he  called 
upon  the  native  ruler  to  turn  Christian  and  acknowl- 
edge Charles  V.  as  his  master.  The  Inca  was  naturally 
surprised  and  annoyed  at  this  unexpected  alteration 
in  the  programme,  and  expressed  himself  to  that  effect. 
This  was  what  the  monk  desired.  lie  made  a  signal, 
fire  was  opened  upon  the  people  by  Ihc  Spanish  guns, 
and  while  the  confusion  was  great  the  horses  charged 
in  and  trampled  wnnien  and  children  under  foot.  In 
half  an  hour  Peru  became  Spanish — a  conquest  that 

I  25  ] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

makes  one  blush  for  the  race  to  which  we  belong. 
There  were  thousands  of  corpses  to  be  buried  that 
night,  and  the  booty  was  ample.  Pizarro  celebrated 
his  victory  by  a  banquet,  and  by  his  side  sat  his  vic- 
tim; a  timid,  gentle  nature  who  hoped,  perhaps,  yet  to 
serve  his  country  by  bowing  meekly  to  the  Spaniard's 
yoke. 

He  offered  to  buy  his  liberty  by  filling  his  dungeon 
with  gold,  and  nearly  kept  his  promise.  But  Pizarro 
perhaps  concluded  that  he  could  fill  it  himself  equally 
well,  so  in  1533  he  put  his  royal  prisoner  to  death — first 
taking  the  precaution  to  have  him  baptized  in  the 
same  faith  as  himself! 

Hereupon  Pizarro  divided  plunder  to  the  extent  of 
$17,500,000. 

Peru  was  now  divided  up  among  the  followers  of 
the  conquerors.  Soldiers  who  had  never  before  known 
more  than  the  fare  of  a  Catalonian  peasant  became 
grandees  of  the  soil — were  waited  upon  by  many  slaves. 
There  was  no  more  desire  to  go  home.  Spain  offered 
no  such  fortune  to  them  as  was  to  be  found  here  on 
the  ruins  of  Inca  palaces. 

The  maintenance  of  slavery  became  here,  as  else- 
where, the  most  important  section  in  the  colonial  con- 
stitution. Men  who  had  murdered  inoffensive  women 
and  children  were  not  likely  to  deal  gently  with  any- 
one attacking  what  they  regarded  as  their  vested  in- 
terest. 


[  26] 


CHECK    TO   SPANISH   COLONIZATION 


SPAIN'S  FIRST  COLONIAL  INSURRECTION 

Only  eleven  years  after  the  murder  of  the  Inca 
Atahualpa  by  Pizarro,  Spain  had  to  face  in  Peru  her 
first  colonial  insurrection.  In  1544  Charles  V.  at- 
tempted to  enforce  the  successive  decrees  against 
slavery,  which  had  uniformly  been  ignored,  notably 
one  of  1543.  In  Mexico  150,000  natives  were  nomi- 
nally set  at  liberty,  for  the  law  of  Spain  proclaimed  the 
Indians  free  by  virtue  of  being  vassals  of  Charles  V. 
But  it  was  too  late — vested  interests  had  grown  too 
strong.  In  Mexico  the  law  was  evaded,  for,  since  it 
applied  only  to  vassals  of  the  Crown,  the  planters  who 
held  slaves  pretended  that  they  had  been  seized  for 
refusing  allegiance,  and  that  plea  was  rarely  found  de- 
fective by  a  colonial  court.  In  1530  slavery  was 
guarded  as  jealously  in  Spanish-America  as  it  was 
three  centuries  later  in  a  part  of  the  United  States;  no 
priest  was  allowed  to  teach  a  native  anything  that 
could  harm  his  master;  to  sell  a  horse  or  fire-arm  to 
a  native  was  punishable  by  death. 

Charles  V.  had  failed  in  Mexico;  it  was  not  likely, 
therefore,  that  he  would  succeed  in  a  land  so  much 
farther  away  as  Peru. 

When,  therefore,  the  Crown  officials  arrived  with 
anti-slavery  proclamations,  drawn  up  by  Las  Casas,  it 
was  the  signal  for  open  rebellion,  'i'he  agents  of  the 
great  Charles  were  openly  insulted  and  driven  out  of 
Peru.  It  was  a  .sort  of  Boston  Tea  Party  in  a  rough 
way,  at  least  so  far  as  tlic  nullificalion  of  a  royal  com- 
mand was  concerned.     And.  more  strange  still,  this 

[  ^7  I 


THE  CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

monarch,  whose  little  finger  was  felt  the  length  and 
breadth  of  Europe,  bowed  to  the  storm  created  by  his 
far-away  colony:  sent  out  a  white-washing  commis- 
sion, pardoned  the  rebels,  granted  all  that  the  colonists 
demanded,  and  surrendered  the  natives  as  slaves  to 
the  white  man. 

The  secret  of  this  cowardice  is  not  far  to  seek. 
Money,  money,  and  only  money,  was  the  cry  of 
Charles.  He  feared  that  a  fight  with  the  colonists  of 
Peru  would  interfere  with  his  supply  of  cash,  and  to 
accomplish  what  he  wished  in  Europe  money  was  vital. 
It  was  not  to  be  got  from  Spain;  it  could  only  be 
drawn  from  America.  So  Charles  satisfied  his  con- 
science by  promising  reforms,  and  closing  one  eye 
when  his  laws  were  treated  as  dead  letters. 

Up  to  this  time  the  power  of  Spain  over  her  colonies 
had  been  seriously  questioned  by  no  European  power. 
Her  claim  to  the  whole  of  America  appeared  to  be  ac- 
knowledged by  the  whole  civilized  world.  The  Span- 
ish treasure-ships  sailed  between  Spain  and  her  colonies 
with  no  thought  of  other  dangers  than  those  associated 
with  a  journey  from  Cadiz  to  Barcelona.  Toward  the 
end  of  1568,  however,  a  new  viceroy,  arriving  at  Vera 
Cruz  with  a  strong  fleet,  was  amazed  to  find  that  port 
occupied  by  two  EngHshmen.  These,  in  the  eyes  of 
Spain,  were  pirates,  but  in  the  eyes  of  their  fellow-coun- 
trymen they  were  important  elements  in  what  made 
up  the  glorious  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  Sir  John 
Hawkins  and  Sir  Francis  Drake  had  inaugurated  a 
series  of  visits  to  the  Spanish  Main,  w^hich  not  merely 
caused  panic  throughout  these  coasts,  but  stimulated 
the  spirit  of  adventure  in  everv  port  of  the  British 

[  28  ]    ' 


CHECK    TO   SPANISH   COLONIZATION 

Isles.  The  contemporaries  of  Shakespeare  were  not 
men  to  fold  their  hands  and  look  on,  while  gold  and  sil- 
ver were  to  be  secured  at  no  greater  cost  than  a  hard 
fight.  There  has  ever  been  a  strong  magnetic  affinity 
between  gold  mines  and  men  of  our  race,  and  we  might 
almost  recognize  the  landmarks  of  our  progress  as 
stamped  in  bullion  with  such  names  as  Johannes- 
burg, California,  Australia,  and  the  gold  galleons  of 
Charles  V. 

Drake  and  Hawkins  are  among  the  world's  heroes 
because  their  work  was  successful  and  achieved  great 
national  ends.  Had  they  both  been  hanged  by  the 
Mexican  viceroy  in  1568  they  would  have  ranked  with 
men  of  the  Jameson  type,  in  a  long  list  of  unsuccess- 
ful filibusters.  Queen  Elizabeth  gave  them  scant  coun- 
tenance when  they  sailed  forth  to  risk  their  lives  in  her 
service,  but  she  gladly  honored  them  when  they  re- 
turned as  national  heroes.  Drake  and  Hawkins,  in 
1568,  commenced  the  uphill  fight  between  little  Eng- 
land and  the  great  Spanish  Empire — a  fight  which  en- 
listed wide  sympathies,  in  so  far  as  it  measured  the 
strength  of  Protestantism  with  papal  authority.  To 
the  Spaniards  an  English  sailor  was  not  only  a  pirate, 
but  a  pirate  that  had  the  audacity  to  deny  the  author- 
ity of  the  Pope,  and  for  him  death  was  regarded  as  a 
mild  punishment.  Lucky  the  English  prisoner  that 
was  not  handed  over  to  the  In(|uisition  for  torture 
before  being  publicly  executed.  In  "  Westward  Ho  " 
Charles  Kingslcy  lias  drawn  a  dramatic  picture  of  ad- 
venturous life  in  that  day.  and,  startUng  as  his  pages 
are,  they  scarcely  outdo  the  cold  recital  contained  in 
official  Spanish  chronicli-.     Imoiu  (Ik-  liim-  of  tlic  intro- 

(    -'9   J 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

duction  of  the  Inquisition  into  Mexico  (1571),  2,000 
cases  are  recorded  as  having  been  tried  in  thirty  years, 
or  more  than  sixty-six  cases  each  year,  more  than 
one  a  week — a  terrible  showing  in  a  young  colony 
with  only  a  handful  of  white  men  and  a  native  popu- 
lation almost  feminine  in  its  docility.  Need  we 
wonder  that  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  the 
Inquisition,  co-operating  with  the  Crown  officials,  had 
produced  such  misery  that  the  native  population  had 
dwindled  to  a  quarter  of  what  it  was  when  Cortes  first 
landed  in  15 19! 

The  British  sea-fighters  of  that  day  were  not  respect- 
able in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  but  their  freebooting  ac- 
quired the  halo  of  popular  sanction  when  it  became 
more  generally  known  that  their  raids  were  at  the  ex- 
pense of  men  who  were  the  enemies  of  their  Queen, 
the  enemies  of  their  religion,  and,  above  all,  capable  of 
outdoing  the  Mohammedan  corsairs  in  cruelty  toward 
the  captured. 

In  the  days  when  Japan  was  a  hermit  nation,  when 
it  was  death  for  a  Japanese  to  leave  his  country  or  to 
entertain  a  foreigner,  we  can  find  no  barbarity  on  their 
part  equal  to  that  displayed  by  Spaniards  under  the 
sanction  of  Christian  ecclesiastical  authority. 

The  Chinese  are  not  famous  for  gentle  treatment 
of  their  enemies,  but  in  the  three  centuries  of  our  in- 
tercourse with  that  nation — making  due  allowance  for 
acts  of  pirates,  brigands,  and  fanatical  mobs — the  his- 
tory of  European  intercourse  will  be  sought  in  vain 
for  official  acts  of  cruelty  so  barbarous  and  so  frequent 
as  those  which  meet  us  on  every  page  of  Spanish  colo- 
nial history. 

[  30  ] 


CHECK   TO   SPANISH   COLONIZATION 

English  adventurers  were  soon  followed  by  Prot- 
estant Dutch,  and  French,  who  might  or  might  not 
have  been  Protestants,  but  who  were  no  less  inter- 
ested in  intercepting  treasure-ships  and  pillaging  the 
palaces  of  viceroys.  In  the  last  twenty  years  of  the 
sixteenth  century  eleven  silver  fleets  left  Vera  Cruz 
for  Spain;  but  frequently  they  did  not  pay  expenses, 
because  of  the  cost  involved  in  securing  them  from 
capture.  It  is  impossible  to  tell  exactly  how  much  gold 
and  silver  reached  the  Madrid  treasury  during  all  the 
years  when  the  Spanish  flag  dominated  from  the 
Golden  Gate  to  the  Rio  de  la  Plata.  Whatever  it  was, 
it  was  never  enough  to  stop  the  unceasing  clamor  for 
more,  which  was  the  burden  of  every  despatch  from 
Spain  to  the  New  World;  it  was  never  enough  to  es- 
tablish agricultural  or  manufacturing  prosperity  in  the 
mother  country;  it  was  not  enough  to  bring  content- 
ment to  the  people  of  Spain,  nor  was  it  enough  to 
check  the  horrible  decrease  of  population  among  the 
natives  of  America. 

Spain  was  burdened  prematurely  with  a  great  colo- 
nial empire.  She  had  not  a  teeming  indigenous  popu- 
lation, nor  had  she  manufactures  seeking  a  market. 
With  the  growth  of  her  colonies,  we  might,  even  in 
that  age,  have  looked  for  a  disposition  to  encourage 
the  manufactures  of  the  country  at  the  expense  of  the 
colonies.  Spain  itself  did  not  invite  immigration,  al- 
though the  high  cost  of  living,  consequent  upon  Ihc 
discovery  of  America,  would  normally  have  invited  a 
stream  of  wage-earners  from  neighboring  white  coun- 
tries, 'i'hereforc,  while  Spain  was  stcadilv  bi'ing 
drained  of  her  most  vigorous  children,  she  diil  nolhing 

[  31   ] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

to  fill  their  places  at  home.  Yet  she  did  not  encourage 
emigration  to  the  New  World  beyond  the  numbers  she 
thought  necessary  for  conducting  the  government 
and  securing  tribute  from  the  colonies.  She  regarded 
her  Spanish  subjects  in  New  Spain  merely  as  an  army 
of  occupation,  who  were  to  act  as  th^y  were  ordered 
to  from  home,  and  to  have  no  interests  in  the  New 
World  save  as  servants  of  the  Crown.  The  Govern- 
ment passed  many  regulations  discouraging  to  those 
desirous  of  leaving  the  mother  country.  The  ships 
were  carefully  overhauled  before  they  sailed,  the  pro- 
posing colonist  had  to  show  a  special  license,  and  to 
secure  this  license  he  had  to  prove,  among  other 
things,  that  for  two  generations  no  member  of  his 
family  had  fallen  under  the  suspicion  of  the  Inquisition. 

Suspicion,  indeed,  was  the  key-note  of  Spanish  colo- 
nial administration.  The  governor  or  viceroy  had  no 
sooner  sailed  from  Spain  than  a  commission  followed 
him,  charged  with  the  duty  of  reporting  secretly  about 
him.  The  Crown  trusted  no  one.  Every  man  was 
suspected,  and  the  Inquisition  machinery  was  set  in 
motion  for  political  quite  as  much  as  for  theological 
heresy.  In  Peru,  in  the  year  1569,  the  Inquisition  had 
charge  not  merely  of  all  breaches  of  faith,  but  of  the 
relations  of  master  and  servant  and  all  questions  of 
morals.  The  partnership  between  Church  and  State, 
in  Madrid,  was  reflected  in  every  Spanish  colony,  the 
only  difference  being  that  on  American  soil  the  Church 
was  the  only  partner  seriously  consulted. 

Spain's  legislation  against  emigration  was  due  less 
to  economic  reasons  than  to  her  chronic  distrust  of  her 
colonists.     She  instinctively  felt  her  own  weakness, 

[  32  ] 


CHECK    TO   SPANISH   COLONIZATION 

and  acted  in  the  belief  that  her  children  would  break 
away  from  her  as  a  matter  of  course.  She  therefore 
adopted  the  policy  of  keeping  them  individually  weak, 
and  not  only  that,  but  of  forbidding  on  pain  of  death 
all  commercial  intercourse  between  one  colony  and 
another.  The  Spanish  Court  wanted  gold  and  silver, 
but  beyond  that  desired  no  further  commerce  with 
the  New  World.  She  limited  the  number  of  ships  that 
might  annually  cross  the  ocean,  as  she  limited  the 
number  of  men  that  sailed  in  them.  She  took  no 
interest  in  supplying  the  New  World  with  Spanish 
products — she  was  not  intelligent  enough  even  to  be 
a  "  protectionist."  The  looms  of  France,  Holland,  and 
England  furnished  the  produce  which  sailed  from 
Spain  for  the  benefit  of  her  Western  possessions. 
Local  manufacturers  complained,  but  the  Government 
preferred  the  ready  cash  collected  at  the  Custom 
House  to  the  remoter  advantages  springing  from  busy 
factories  at  home.  Thus  the  very  indifference — not 
to  say  contempt — which  the  Spanish  Government  en- 
tertained for  trade,  led  indirectly  to  the  founding  of 
mills  and  factories  in  America.  Already,  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  guns  were  cast  at  Santiago  (Cul)a)  as 
well  as  in  Mexico.  The  Spanish  nobleman's  inherited 
aversion  to  all  useful  occupations  blinded  him  to  the 
military  advantage  of  having  an  army  of  machinists  to 
fall  back  upon. 


[  3.^   1 


Ill 

THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF    SOUTH    AMERICA 

''All  men  seek  gain  and,  more  or  less,  love  money  ;  but  the  way 
in  which  gain  is  sought  will  have  a  marked  effect  upon  the  com- 
mercial fortunes  and  the  history  of  the  people  inhabiting  a  country. '  * 
— Mahan,  "Sea  Power  on  History,"  50. 

Extermination   of  Natives — Influence   of  the  Jesuits  in    Paraguay 

PIZARRO  conquered  Peru  in  1532;  in  1556  it 
contained  8,000  Spaniards,  of  whom  1,000  were 
officials  and  four  hundred  and  eighty-nine  great 
proprietors.  The  Governor,  even  at  that  early  day, 
felt  that  he  had  too  many  colonists  to  manage.  So 
he  made  an  inventory  of  his  fellow-countrymen,  for- 
bade any  more  to  come,  ordered  those  already  licensed 
to  stay  in  one  place  and  not  move  about;  then  he  col- 
lected all  those  whom  he  did  not  fully  credit  with 
legitimate  occupations  and  cut  off  their  heads.  Thus 
was  peace  and  quiet  restored,  whites  a  philosophic 
chronicler. 

In  1 571,  within  forty  years  of  Pizarro's  conquest, 
the  ruling  Inca  was  seized  by  treachery  and  put  to 
death,  along  with  a  large  number  of  other  natives  sus- 
pected of  disloyalty  to  the  viceroy.  All  the  symbols 
of  native  worship  were  destroyed.  Whenever  slaves 
were  wanted,  natives  were  accused  of  heresy,  con- 
demned by  the  Church  and  handed  over  to  the  planta- 

[  34  ] 


DEVELOPMENT   OF   SOUTH   AMERICA 

tions  or  mines.  The  silence  of  helplessness  brooded 
over  the  land  of  the  Incas  at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century. 

For  fifty  years  Spain  sought  to  subdue  Chili,  but 
there  she  met  with  a  resistance  that  indicated  a 
stronger  and  more  barbarous  race  of  men.  The  Chil- 
ians have  a  climate  and  soil  congenial  to  fighters,  and 
there  the  Spaniards  found  no  gentle  Incas  suing  for 
mercy  at  the  first  sight  of  a  white  invader.  They 
tortured  their  captives  and  impaled  a  chief  now  and 
then,  but  the  Chilians  fought  the  more  vigorously. 
At  last  (1603)  Spain  renounced  all  claim  upon  that 
land  and  devoted  her  energies  to  the  more  complete 
exhaustion  of  Peru. 

The  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  in  Paris  (1572) 
is  a  convenient  date  by  which  to  remember  the  appear- 
ance of  Jesuits  in  America,  and  that  date  is  important 
as  marking  the  time  when  natives  commenced  to  look 
upon  the  Catholic  Church  with  other  feelings  than 
mere  fear.  The  best  testimony  on  this  point  is  fur- 
nished, perhaps,  by  the  fact  that  when  after  two  centu- 
ries they  were  expelled  from  the  Spanish  colonies,  their 
going  was  mourned  as  a  national  calamity — at  least 
by  the  natives.  In  Mexico  the  edict  led  to  riots,  and 
in  other  colonics  the  Crown  had  to  take  military  pre- 
cautions against  demonstrations  in  their  behalf.  In 
the  Jesuit  the  native  recognized  not  merely  a  priest 
like  those  of  the  other  orders,  but  a  superior  man. 
who  by  his  knowledge  rai.sed  those  whom  he  instructed 
to  a  higher  level.  It  was  a  Jesuit  missionary  who.  in 
1636,  made  known  to  us  the  virtues  of  quinine.  Th.it 
priest  was  n  phvsiciaii  and  healed  the  Coinitess  Chin- 

I    .LS   J 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

chon,  wife  of  the  Governor,  by  means  of  this  drug  pro- 
cured from  natives,  and  named  after  her  Cinchona.  In 
missionary  work  the  Jesuit  of  that  day  was  the  leader 
in  his  profession — the  Society  of  Jesus  was  a  species 
of  corps  d' elite — an  Intelligence  Department — a  Gen- 
eral Stafif  in  the  great  army  of  the  Roman  Church.  In 
the  higher  walks,  in  subtle  negotiations,  in  dealing  with 
problems  requiring  knowledge  of  science  as  well  as  of 
men,  the  Jesuits  proved  themselves  capable  of  any  task 
save  only  that  of  reforming  the  Government, 

In  1573  there  were  procured  for  the  Potosi  mines 
11,199  slaves,  while  a  century  later  (in  1673),  under 
the  same  laws,  only  1,673  could  be  found. 

This  little  item  is  eloquent  on  the  subject  of  native 
extermination — and  as  it  was  in  Peru,  so  was  it  pretty 
much  everywhere  else.  Each  year  brought  to  these 
gentle  creatures  yet  heavier  burdens,  until  at  length 
life  seemed  no  longer  worth  living.  Boys  of  eight 
were  dragged  off  to  the  mines — in  some  villages  not  a 
man  remained  after  the  slave  gangs  had  raided  them. 
Not  one-tenth  of  the  native  population  which  had 
originally  welcomed  the  Christian  rule  of  Spain,  re- 
mained at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Estates 
which  formerly  had  1,000  laborers,  maintained  but 
one  hundred.  Villages  were  taxed  without  reference 
to  what  they  could  afford  to  pay,  and  every  form  of 
oppression  was  tolerated  for  the  purpose  of  wringing 
money  from  impoverished  communities. 

It  was  the  same  old  story — the  treasury  of  Madrid 
clamored  for  more  and  more  money — the  protests  of 
honest  men  were  disregarded  or  else  were  humored 
by  decrees  which  became  dead  letters.    Such  a  decree 

[  36  ] 


DEVELOPMENT   OF   SOUTH   AMERICA 

was  made  for  Peru  in  1664,  but  it  did  no  more  good 
than  that  of  1543,  or  the  many  others  pretending  to 
shield  natives  from  violence.  Indeed,  the  very  Church 
whose  mission  it  was  to  protect  the  helpless,  levied  its 
tithes  by  violence — according  to  the  report  of  Juan 
de  Padilla  made  in  1657  to  the  King  of  Spain. 

The  year  of  deliverance  for  the  natives  seemed  to 
have  arrived  in  1780,  when  the  last  of  the  Incas,  after 
having  pleaded  in  vain  the  cause  of  his  oppressed  peo- 
ple, headed  a  rebellion.  The  Spanish  Governor,  who, 
by  the  way,  was  noted  even  among  Spaniards  for  his 
cruelty,  was  publicly  put  to  death  after  a  formal  trial 
at  the  hands  of  a  native  tribunal.  But  the  rebelHon 
was  ultimately  crushed,  and  some  80,000  natives  were 
put  to  death.  It  was  a  massacre  on  the  model  of  that 
in  1572.  All  the  surviving  members  of  the  Inca  family, 
some  ninety  in  number,  were  put  to  death;  the  ruHng 
Inca  himself  was  captured  by  treachery  and  killed,  and 
every  vestige  of  native  religion  was  eradicated.  When 
it  became  desirable  for  a  white  man  to  plunder  a  rich 
native,  it  was  no  longer  necessary  to  charge  against 
him  heathen  practice,  it  was  sufficient  if  heathen 
thought  were  laid  at  his  door. 

Need  we  be  surprised  to  learn  that  after  two  hun- 
dred years  of  Spanish  dominion  in  Peru  the  number 
of  natives  had  sunk  from  8,000,000  to  less  than  t,ooo,- 
000,  which  number  included  all  races?  Spaniards  rep- 
resented 136,000,  African  negroes  80,000,  mixed  blood 
244,000.  In  this  census  only  609,000  Tndians  were 
enuincrated.  This  record  puts  to  the  blush  all  previ- 
ous exterminations  undcrlrikcn  by  mere  healhen  na- 
tions. 

1 ,1;  I 


liiLiA'Jl 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 


At  the  time  of  this  census  (1794),  Peru  enjoyed  the 
Christian  ministration  of  5,496  monks  and  nuns — a 
number  amounting  to  ahnost  one  priest  for  every  one 
hundred  Indians.  Even  to  the  mind  of  a  Spanish  king 
there  appeared  such  a  thing  as  overdoing  the  outward 
manifestations  of  piety,  for,  in  the  same  year  that  the 
first  Pilgrim  Fathers  landed  in  Massachusetts,  Philip 
III.  wrote  to  his  viceroy  in  Peru  complaining  that  in 
Lima  the  property  of  the  Church  covered  "  more  space 
than  all  the  rest  of  the  city." 

We  speak  of  the  Church  in  general,  at  the  risk  of 
leaving  the  impression  that  one  priest  was  the  same  as 
every  other,  or  that  even  religious  orders  resembled 
one  another  closely.  In  many  essential  respects  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  presents,  in  the  doctrines 
which  it  preaches  and  in  the  ceremonial  of  its  outward 
worship,  a  unity  which  is  in  marked  contrast  to  the 
divergencies  among  Protestants.  The  great  Reforma- 
tion af  1 5 19  found  the  Roman  Church,  from  the  palace 
of  the  Pope  to  the  hut  of  the  parish  priest,  enfeebled 
by  absence  of  discipline — not  to  say  voluptuous  living. 
Rome  was  resting  on  past  triumphs,  forgetting  that 
the  task  of  maintaining  the  fruits  of  conquest  is  some- 
times more  arduous  than  the  conquest  itself.  The 
forces  behind  Luther  fought  with  the  enthusiasm  of 
moral  conviction,  led  by  the  most  accomplished  intel- 
lectual soldiers  of  the  day.  Rome  was  staggered  by 
the  blow,  and  for  the  moment  seemed  about  to  fall — 
never  to  rise  again. 

But  within  a  few  years  the  whole  military  situation 
was  changed.  The  Protestants,  having  learned  the  art 
of  w^ar  in  victories  over  Rome,  continued  to  exercise 

[  38] 


DEVELOPMENT   OF   SOUTH  AMERICA 

the  profession  of  arms — not  in  consolidating  their  em- 
pire and  arming  it  against  the  common  enemy,  but 
in  war  within  itself.  Then  Rome  lifted  herself;  her 
momentary  mortification  caused  her  to  rise  with  a 
mind  purified  by  adversity;  her  forces  were  reorgan- 
ized, and  she  moved  forward  to  the  reconquest  of  Eu- 
rope with  that  essential  factor  in  successful  warfare — 
unity  of  command. 

Colonial  Spain  had  been  nearly  a  generation  in  ex- 
istence before  Rome  received  the  severe  lesson  of  Mar- 
tin Luther.  Cuba,  San  Domingo,  Hayti,  Porto  Rico, 
Jamaica,  all  these  had  been  parcelled  out  and  adminis- 
tered by  monks  brought  up  in  the  school  of  self-indul- 
gence and  illiteracy.  Mexico  and  Peru  w'ere  conquered 
and  Christianized  by  priests  whose  Christianity  had 
not  yet  received  a  higher  stamp  than  that  of  Havana. 
In  1525  Mexico  had  monasteries,  but  nearly  half  a 
century  passed  before  Jesuits  came  to  the  New  World. 
The  early  Spanish  priests  came  not  as  missionaries,  in 
our  sense,  but  as  conquerors.  They  knew  not  how 
to  persuade  men  of  another  creed  and  race.  A  heathen 
to  them  was  merely  a  heretic,  and  in  those  days  to 
give  a  heretic  an  opportunity  of  recanting  was  in  itself 
regarded  as  an  act  of  clemency.  The  priest  virtually 
offered  the  American  Indians  no  choice  but  slavish 
submission  to  Church  authority  or  death.  Those  who 
hesitated  were  first  tortured;  otherwise  the  process 
was  the  same. 

The  thousands  of  priests  who  since  1492  had  been 
accustomed  to  baptize  natives  at  the  point  of  the 
bhmdcrbuss  or  under  llie  influence  of  ihumb-scrcws, 
were  scandalized  when  I  hey  learned  thai  ilisciples  of 

[  39] 


THE   CHILDREN    OF   THE   NATIONS 

Loyola  were  coming  to  the  New  World  with  different 
ideas  regarding  missionary  methods. 

The  Jesuit,  feared  and  hated  throughout  Protestant 
Europe  for  the  slipperiness  so  liberally  mingled  with 
his  erudition,  has  proved  himself  in  other  parts  of  the 
world  a  civilizing  element  without  a  peer  in  the  his- 
tory of  missionary  enterprise.  If  he  has  done  nothing 
more  than  rebuke  the  brutal  methods  of  his  fellow- 
priests  in  South  America,  history  can  afford  to  give 
him  generous  recognition. 

Let  us  cross  the  Andes  and  mark  the  work  inaugu- 
rated by  two  Jesuits  who  reached  the  head-waters  of 
the  Parana  in  1610.  The  Spanish  Governor  of  that 
territory  (now  divided  between  Argentine  and  Para- 
guay) had  been  for  years  endeavoring  to  "  pacify  " — 
that  is  to  say,  enslave  or  exterminate — the  natives  in 
the  lands  adjoining  the  River  Plate. 

The  two  Jesuits  lost  no  time  in  plunging  into  the 
wilderness  and  organizing  mission  stations  on  the  basis 
of  a  semi-religious,  semi-communistic  agricultural  and 
trading  society.  The  Governor  gave  his  aid  in  the 
enforcement  of  laws  against  slave-raiding,  and  this  was 
all  the  Jesuits  asked  for  the  success  of  their  work.  Na- 
tives streamed  to  them  from  all  quarters,  attracted  by 
the  intelligence  and  humanity  of  Jesuit  government, 
contrasted  with  that  which  they  had  hitherto  associ- 
ated with  Spanish  domination.  One  station  after  an- 
other was  planted,  each  station  a  model  of  profitable 
farming  enterprise,  based  upon  the  consent  of  those 
whose  labor  made  it  successful.  Each  community  em- 
braced at  least  2,500  Indians,  at  the  head  of  which  was 
a  Jesuit  father  presidincr  over  the  parish  church.  Each 
'  [  40  ] 


DEVELOPMENT   OF   SOUTH   AMERICA 

family  had  a  tract  of  land  and  these  several  tracts  en- 
circled the  village,  so  that  each  family  had  an  equal 
distance  to  travel  for  the  purpose  of  tilling  the  fields. 
Beyond  the  circle  of  cultivation  lay  a  wide  zone  of 
common  or  pasture  land,  on  which  the  flocks  and 
herds  were  kept. 

Life  was  conducted  on  strict  but  intelligent  rules — 
at  least  they  were  adapted  to  those  directly  concerned. 
There  was  no  private  property  among  them,  save  the 
ornaments  of  the  women.  The  right  of  the  individual 
was  the  right  to  use  the  land  during  his  lifetime,  to 
enjoy  the  fruit  of  his  labor  in  security — but  nothing 
more.  Inheritance  was  not  permitted.  The  Church 
offered  to  all  who  labored  a  good  living  and  a  state  of 
happiness  considerably  higher  than  any  known  to  ex- 
ist at  that  time  between  Cape  Horn  and  the  Golden 
Gate — at  least  for  the  native  Indian. 

In  this  communistic  theocracy  the  Jesuit  priest 
furnished  agricultural  implements,  land,  houses,  and 
administration.  In  return  for  that  he  exacted  three 
days'  labor  out  of  the  week,  which  the  native  gave  for 
the  benefit  of  the  community.  In  other  words,  the 
Jesuit  took  a  raw  savage  and  his  family  from  a  life  pre- 
carious at  best,  protected  him  from  fellow-savages  on 
the  one  hand  and  slavc-raidcrs  on  the  other,  guaran- 
teed him  and  his  children  the  life  of  a  prosperous  farmer, 
and  all  this  without  exacting  any  previous  accumula- 
tion of  capital,  education,  or  even  experience.  In  the 
first  generation  this  was  indeed  a  huge  promotion,  and 
possibly  for  the  second;  but  as  a  permanent  institution 
it  was  oj)en  to  the  general  criticism  that  in  the  long 
run  commimities  reared  in  such  ri  manner  are  apt  to 

I   f    I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

lack  ambition  and  energy — do  not  develop  into  vigor- 
ous, self-governing  bodies.  We  can  notice  this,  even 
to-day,  in  the  French-Canadian  villages  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  Valley,  and  in  the  quality  of  the  emigrants 
they  send  to  our  factories  in  Maine  and  Massachusetts. 

The  Paraguay  colonies  had  been  but  ten  years  in 
operation  when  (1620)  they  received  a  severe  blow, 
not  from  incursions  of  warlike  Indians,  but  from  their 
fellow-Christians — even  the  Governor  of  the  Colony. 

He  had  married  a  Portuguese  lady  who  owned 
plantations  in  neighboring  Brazil. 

For  the  more  profitable  working  of  these  estates 
he  instituted  slave-raids,  not  merely  in  his  own  colony, 
but  among  the  mission  stations  of  the  Jesuits,  where 
the  unsuspecting  Indians  were  easily  captured  by  thou- 
sands. Those  who  had  time  escaped  to  the  forests 
with  the  Jesuit  priests. 

It  was  many  years  before  this  governor  was  tried 
for  his  offence,  and  when  the  verdict  was  made  public 
it  was  in  the  nature  of  encouragement  to  future  slave- 
raiders.  He  w'as  fined  a  few  dollars  and  suspended 
from  ofBce  for  a  few  years — that  was  all. 

This  experience  gave  the  Jesuits  warning  that  in 
South  America  their  enemies  were  of  their  own  house- 
hold. They  at  once  commenced  to  fortify  their  sta- 
tions against  their  fellow-Spaniards.  Military  exer- 
cises were  instituted,  and  every  community  was  placed 
on  a  war  footing.  Thus  these  mission-stations  grew 
from  year  to  year — centres  of  civilization  in  the  wilder- 
ness of  the  Plate  River. 

But  the  very  virtues  of  the  Jesuits  made  them  ene- 
mies.   The  Franciscan  Bishop,  in  particular,  hated  the 

[  42  ] 


DEVELOPMENT   OF   SOUTH   AMERICA 

Jesuits.  He  hated  the  schools  that  they  organized 
among  the  natives,  he  hated  to  see  the  enormous  in- 
fluence acquired  by  a  rival  order;  he  carried  to  Rome 
all  tales  that  could  undermine  Jesuit  influence  at  head- 
quarters, and  even  went  so  far  as  to  instigate  the  mob 
to  burn  down  the  Jesuit  buildings  in  Asuncion.  It 
was  some  years  before  this  Bishop  was  at  length 
(1648)  deposed  for  his  action;  then  he  had  to  be  seized 
by  violence,  for  he  refused  to  yield  his  authority  when 
summoned  in  the  name  of  the  Pope. 

The  Jesuits  made  enemies  on  all  sides  in  proportion 
as  they  benefited  the  natives.  The  colonists  demanded 
the  slave-trade  for  their  estates  and  were  indignant 
because  the  Jesuits  withdrew  Indians  from  the  slave- 
market  and  educated  them  in  a  manner  that  made 
them  worthless  as  slaves.  The  Jesuits  were,  in  fact, 
endangering  the  prosperity  of  the  colony  by  advocat- 
ing the  abolition  of  slavery.  They  were  a  public  enemy 
and  should  be  exterminated — so  thought  the  planter. 
Nor  had  the  traders  any  love  for  the  Jesuits,  for  they 
were  competitors  in  their  markets  and  could  afiford 
to  undersell.  They  produced  large  quantities  of  cat- 
tle, cochineal,  tea,  and  cotton,  and  shipped  to  Europe 
what  they  did  not  sell  in  Asuncion.  It  was  in  1645 
that  the  Jesuits  secured  authority  to  trade;  not  on 
their  own  account,  but  for  the  benefit  of  their  Indians. 
But  this  vexed  the  colonial  traders  so  much  that  they 
had  a  law  passed  forbidding  the  Jesuits'  bringing  to 
market  more  than  a  limit c(l  ,-unount  of  produce. 

Finally  even  I  lie  (rowii  oflicials  dislilscd  the  Jesuits, 
becau.se  they  did  not  bring  money  enough  to  the  treas- 
ury.    They  spent   it    in  building  new  schools  and  in 

I    Ki   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

otherwise  improving  the  condition  of  the  natives.  Ac- 
cording to  Spanish  precedent  elsewhere,  all  those 
Indians  would  have  been  more  useful  to  the  Spanish 
Crown  had  they  been  sold  to  forced  labor  and  thus 
furnished  a  larger  revenue.  In  theory,  Madrid  was 
pleased  to  have  the  natives  contented,  but  practically, 
every  viceroy  knew  that  the  favor  with  which  he  was 
regarded  at  Court  depended  upon  the  amount  of 
money  he  was  able  to  send  to  the  treasury,  with  little 
reference  to  the  manner  in  which  it  was  secured. 

Thus  colonials  of  every  profession — the  Franciscans 
at  the  head — wished  ill  to  the  Jesuits  in  Paraguay. 
They  were  accused  of  founding  a  state  within  a  state, 
of  arming  the  natives  against  the  authority  of  the 
King,  of  teaching  the  natives  doctrines  prejudicial  to 
the  prosperity  of  the  slave-holding  planters. 

Finally  (1767)  the  Jesuits  were  driven  from  Para- 
guay, and  the  mission-stations,  which  they  had  built 
up  with  so  much  labor  and  intelligence,  were  destroyed. 
These  very  missions  were  indeed  the  means  of  ruining 
them.  The  Governor  demanded  their  immediate  re- 
moval at  an  impossible  time  and  to  an  impossible  place, 
and  because  a  slight  hesitation  was  shown,  troops  were 
called,  the  stations  attacked,  the  buildings  plundered, 
and  the  natives  scattered  into  the  forest  once  more. 

The  Jesuit  fathers  were  deported  to  Europe  like 
malefactors,  and  the  colonists  rejoiced  at  the  expul- 
sion of  the  only  obstacle  that  had  hitherto  stood  be- 
tween them  and  their  prey — the  Indian  whom  they 
desired  as  a  slave. 

The  missionary  stations,  w'hich  in  1767  contained 
144,000  workmen,  at  the  end  of  the  century  had  only 
45,000. 

[  44] 


IV 

THE  RELATIONS  OF  SPAIN  WITH  CUBA 
AND  MANILA  DOWN  TO  THE  END  OF 
THE    NINETEENTH    CENTURY 

"/  think  that  he,  while  Military  Governor,  committed  an  egre- 
gious error  and  did  great  injustice  to  the  Chinese  by  introducing  into 
the  Philippines  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Jet,  which  has  stirred  up 
race  prejudice  and  done  harm  to  those  Islands.^'' — Letter  ofWv 
Ting  Fang,  Chinese  Minister  to  Washington,  February,  1901,  re- 
ferring to  the  American  Governor  at  Manila,  General  Otis. 

The  Effect  of  Freebooting  on  the  Development  of  Colonial 
Trade  in  the  Sixteenth  Century — English  Occupation  of 
Havana  and   Manila — Treatment  of  Chinese 

SPAIN  enjoyed  the  use  of  Cuba  for  three  hundred 
and  eighty-seven  years  before  she  finally  with- 
drew (1898)  in  favor  of  the  United  States.  Yet 
as  soon  as  the  United  States  became  a  nation  (1783), 
she  commenced  to  weaken  the  hold  of  Spain  on  Cuba. 
Yankee  traders  were  no  less  keen  than  those  of  Lon- 
don or  Amsterdam  and  they  had  the  added  advantage 
of  a  nearer  market.  All  trade  with  the  Spanish  colo- 
nies had  to  be  more  or  less  contral^and;  and  the  swift 
coasting  schooners  of  IJaltimoro  and  Salem  soon  be- 
came familiar  off  the  Cuban  coast,  'ihey  were  smug- 
glers in  the  eyes  of  the  authorities,  benefactors  in  the 
eyes  of  the  people,  and  a  source  of  profit  to  both.     It 

I   -IS   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

was  Spain's  hatred  for  England  which  led  her,  in  1777, 
to  join  with  France  in  creating  the  American  Republic, 
a  neighbor  that  soon  drove  her  flag  from  Florida  and 
California,  supplanted  her  language  by  that  of  Eng- 
land, and  paved  the  way  for  such  an  ascendancy  in 
the  Western  World  that  one  by  one  her  colonies  be- 
came independent,  with  constitutions  modelled  on  that 
of  the  United  States. 

History  affords  scarcely  another  example  of  fatuity 
so  glaring  as  that  of  Spain,  governing  her  own  colonies 
despotically  and  yet  assisting  in  the  creation  of  an 
Anglo-Saxon  democracy  at  her  gates.  She  recognized 
her  blunder  almost  as  soon  as  it  was  committed,  for, 
in  1783,  Count  Aranda,  the  Prime  Minister  of  Charles 
III.,  elaborated  a  scheme  intended  to  protect  Spain 
against  a  revolutionary  movement  such  as  had  torn 
the  American  Colonies  from  England.  He  proposed 
the  creation  of  three  kingdoms;  one  in  IMexico,  an- 
other in  Peru,  and  the  third  to  consist  of  all  the  rest 
of  the  territory  not  already  occupied,  to  be  called  Costa 
Firme.  These  territories  were  to  be  ruled  by  princes 
of  the  royal  house,  who  should  be  bound  to  the  mother 
country  by  strong  treaties,  involving  trade  reciprocity 
and  common  action  in  war,  trade  with  France,  but 
none  with  England.  This  scheme,  which  was  long 
and  seriously  discussed,  proves  that  Spain  herself 
recognized  in  a  shadowy  way  that  her  great  empire 
could  not  much  longer  be  held  together  unless  the 
colonies  were  given  some  measure  of  self-government, 
however  small. 

The  American  Revolution  was  a  shock  to  colonial 
Spain  no  less  violent  than  was  the  Protestant  Refor- 

[  46  ] 


RELATIONS   OF   SPAIN   WITH   CUBA 

mation  to  the  Roman  Church  in  15 19.  The  rum- 
blings of  the  French  Revolution  were  already  audible 
in  Europe,  and  there  were  statesmen  even  in  Spain 
who  thought  it  better  to  offer  their  subjects  some- 
thing, rather  than  expose  themselves  to  losing  all. 

But,  with  strange  blindness,  the  Spanish  Govern- 
ment postponed  the  matter  until  it  was  too  late. 

Cuba  was  a  much  neglected  colony  in  her  earlier 
years.  It  is  only  in  our  lifetime  that  Spain  has  been 
given  to  speaking  affectionately  of  her  "  Pearl  of  the 
Antilles,"  Indeed,  Spanish  affection  for  Cuba  sug- 
gests the  analogy  afforded  by  the  love  of  France  for 
Alsace-Lorraine — a  love  which  was  not  conspicuous 
until  the  German  flag  waved  over  Metz  and  Stras- 
burg.  Fifty  years  after  the  first  voyage  of  Columbus 
Cuba  had  only  1,000  white  settlers — and  at  this  time 
Mexico  and  Peru  were  already  coveted  prizes  of  Court 
favorites.*  Freebooters  constantly  harassed  her 
shores,  and  in  1555  Havana  was  burned  by  pirates. 
Drake  and  his  compeers  blockaded  the  island  success- 
fully for  many  years,  and  intercourse  with  the  mother 
country  was  throughout  the  sixteenth  century  almost 
entirely  cut  off.  In  1569  the  island  was  bankrupt  and 
applied  to  the  Viceroy  of  Mexico  for  an  advance  of 
money  to  be  used  in  erecting  the  most  necessary  de- 
fences. The  money  was  advanced,  and  from  that  time 
on  Cuba's  annual  deficit  was  made  up  by  Mexico,  as 
long  as  the  latter  remained  tied  lo  Spain. 

After  a  hundred  years  of  .Spanish  goxernineni,  and 
in  spite  of  the  high  price  of  sugar  in   l''uropc,  Cuba 

•  In  1540  Cuha  conlaiiicd  600  African  iicj;r()csanil  2,000  native  Indian 
slaves. 

f    17  I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF  THE   NATIONS 

shipped  scarcely  any  of  that  commodity  abroad,  owing 
to  bad  economic  and  poHtical  administration. 

Most  of  the  Indians  had  died  out.  African  labor  was 
inadequate,  and  the  little  trade  that  existed  was  due 
to  the  enterprise  of  pirates,  smugglers,  and  contra- 
band slavers. 

Spain's  chief  colonial  blessings,  though  she  did  not 
at  the  time  recognize  them  as  such,  came  from  Eng- 
land, whose  freebooters  neutralized  the  bad  effects  of 
Spanish  legislation  and  saved  the  colonists  from  the 
disastrous  results  of  commercial  isolation.  In  1655 
Oliver  Cromwell  did  Spain  a  favor  by  depriving  her  of 
Jamaica,  from  which  island  freebooters  of  all  nations 
operated  successfully  in  educating  Spanish  sentiment 
in  regard  to  the  value  of  sea-power  as  an  element  in 
commercial  prosperity. 

England,  from  this  time  on,  undertook  police  duty 
in  the  West  Indies  and  upheld  Spain's  commercial 
treaties.  The  Peace  of  Utrecht,  in  1713,  forms  an- 
other epoch  in  Spanish  colonial  history,  for  by  that 
instrument  England  acquired  the  legal  right  of  bring- 
ing slaves  to  Spanish  America.*  This  did  not  amount 
to  much  on  the  surface,  because  contraband  trade  in 
Africans  had  been  carried  on  for  nearly  two  centuries 
by  enterprising  seamen  of  all  nations;  but  England 
now  acquired  the  privilege  of  entering  Spanish-Ameri- 
can ports  openly  and  there  disposing  of  cargoes.  She 
was  limited,  it  is  true,  to  negroes,  but  under  the  pretext 
of  landing  negroes,  English  ships  landed  almost  any- 

*  Sir  John  Hawkins  brought  cargoes  of  slaves  to  the  Spanish  colonies 
in  1562,  1564,  and  1567.  This  gallant  freebooter  died  at  sea  off  Porto 
Rico  in  1595.  after  sixty-two  years  of  life,  most  of  which  was  spent  in 
fighting  Spain. 

[    48    ] 


RELATIONS   OF   SPAIN    WITH   CUBA 

thing  else  they  saw  fit.  England  soon  had  the  bulk 
of  the  American  trade,  while  Spain's  share  was  only 
twenty-two  per  cent.  It  has  been  Spain's  fortune, 
from  the  time  of  Elizabeth  to  the  present  day,  to  have 
been  chronically  at  war  with  England  and  the  de- 
scendants of  England,  and,  while  in  those  wars  she 
has  been  uniformly  unsuccessful,  it  has  been  only 
through  these  enemies  that  she  has  enjoyed  the  little 
commercial  prosperity  which  has  fallen  to  her  lot. 

Throughout  the  seventeenth  century  Spain's  inter- 
course with  her  colonies  almost  ceased  because  of 
pirates.  Vera  Cruz  was  for  three  days  plundered  by 
these  highwaymen  of  the  water,  and,  when  they  finally 
disappeared  with  their  booty,  the  Spaniards,  instead 
of  rushing  to  arms,  crowded  into  the  churches  and 
gave  thanks  for  deliverance! 

When  at  last  Spain  made  concessions  to  England, 
it  was  not  in  any  hope  of  mutual  benefit,  but  merely  to 
escape  a  piracy  which  had  nearly  destroyed  what  little 
shipping  she  possessed.  In  1654  Mexico  sent  her 
"  record  "  cargo  of  precious  metals  to  Spain — after- 
ward the  buccaneers  ruled  too  strongly.  San  Do- 
mingo at  that  time  contained  10,000  pirates.  The 
word  "  pirate,"  indeed,  had  become  synonymous  with 
navigation,  and  even  our  Puritan  forefathers  showed 
scant  scruple  in  undertaking  commercial  enterprises 
which  nowadays  would  end  in  penal  servitude,  if  not 
the  gallows. 

English  blood  seems  to  be  happier  (jn  board  shi|) 
than  docs  that  of  the  Spaniard  or  oven  the  Frenchman; 
and  this  may  explain  why,  allhough  Providence  thrust 
islands  in  the  C(jurse  of  her  ships,  Spain  neglected  these 

I    A^)    I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

watery  possessions  in  favor  of  the  continent,  where  she 
felt  more  secure.  At  no  time  in  her  history  was  she 
able  to  protect  her  islands  from  depredation,  and  their 
inhabitants  had  to  abandon  the  coasts  and  take  refuge 
in  the  interior  if  they  wished  to  escape  the  raids  of  the 
enemy.  The  English,  on  the  other  hand,  looked  upon 
the  sea  as  their  best  friend,  and  the  colonies  that  at- 
tracted them  most  were  those  with  salt  water  about 
them.  The  landmarks  of  England's  colonial  progress 
bear  the  names  of  Barbados,  Jamaica,  Hong-Kong 
and  Singapore,  Bermuda,  Mauritius,  St.  Helena. 
Hardly  had  England  set  foot  in  the  West  Indies  than 
her  colonial  produce  began  to  outstrip  that  of  Spain, 
England  accomplishing  more  in  ten  years  than  Spain 
in  a  century. 

The  treaty  with  England  (of  171 3)  was  beginning 
to  bear  fruits  in  Cuba,  when  Spain,  in  171 7,  passed  a 
law  compelling  all  tobacco-planters  to  sell  their  prod- 
uce to  Government  agents  at  Government  prices.  This 
caused  the  first  riot  in  the  island.  Havana  refused 
obedience  and  shipped  the  obnoxious  officials  back  to 
the  mother  country.  Spain  yielded  for  the  moment, 
but  in  1739  gave  the  monopoly  of  the  tobacco  trade 
to  a  company — a  heavy  blow  to  Cuban  trade.  The 
shareholders  in  1746  divided  thirty  per  cent,  profit, 
but  that  did  not  comfort  those  at  whose  expense  this 
profit  was  made.  In  1760,  a  century  and  a  half  after 
its  first  settlement,  Cuba  had  only  140,000  settlers, 
while  French  Hayti  had  400,000,  scattered  over  five 
hundred  plantations.  At  the  same  time  San  Domingo 
(Spanish),  representing  four-fifths  of  the  whole  area, 
had  only  40,000  population.   While  the  French  colony 

[  50  ] 


RELATIONS   OF   SPAIN   WITH   CUBA 

exported  6,000,000  francs'  worth,  San  Domingo  had 
to  receive  an  annual  subsidy  from  Mexico.  Jamaica 
in  the  same  year  was  a  large  exporter  of  sugar,  rum, 
and  coffee. 

In  such  a  discouraging  state  of  Spanish-American 
trade  Cuba  sighed  for  a  change.  It  came  in  1762,  when 
there  appeared  before  Havana  fifty-three  British  men- 
of-war  escorting  two  hundred  transports,  the  whole 
representing  a  force  of  twenty  British  regiments,  who 
soon  captured  Havana,  secured  a  booty  of  £736,000, 
and  proceeded  to  give  the  country  a  better  administra- 
tion than  it  had  ever  enjoyed  before,  or  has  since,  with 
the  possible  exception  of  General  Ludlow's  brief  term 
of  office  immediately  after  the  Spanish-American  War. 

The  port  was  immediately  thrown  open  to  English 
trade,  and  from  having  only  half  a  dozen  ships  in  a  year, 
Havana  now,  in  the  ten  months  of  English  occupa- 
tion, had  a  thousand  ships  visit  her  port.  In  this  short 
time  she  imported  3,000  negroes,  as  many  as  during 
twenty  years  of  Spanish  monopoly.  The  island  com- 
menced to  flourish  again;  in  fact,  she  has  flourished 
under  every  event  which  has  mortified  Spain. 

Within  three  months  of  the  capture  of  Cuba,  another 
British  fleet  (under  Admiral  Cornish)  appeared  before 
Manila,  landed  3,700  men,  and  captured  it.  It  would 
have  astonished  the  England  of  that  day  to  be  told 
that  one  of  her  colonies  would,  in  less  than  a  century 
and  a  half,  be  strong  enough  to  attack  both  those 
islands  and  hold  titoii! 

England  kej)l  llu-ni  niitil  I  he  pracc  of  1763.  Short 
as  her  occupation  was,  she  gave  the  Spanish  colonists 
a  taste  for  better  administration  and  more  liberty. 

f  5'   J 


THE   CHILDREN    OF   THE   NATIONS 

Let  us  note  that  the  Cuban  accepted  cheerfully 
the  rule  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  in  1762,  as  he  did  in  1898 
as  well — for  a  time.  In  the  Philippines,  however,  the 
natives  would  have  none  of  the  new  regime,  and  Eng- 
land found  herself  engaged  in  guerrilla  warfare,  which 
promised  to  drag  itself  out  indefinitely. 

It  seems  a  long  jump  from  Manila  to  Cuba,  but  in 
that  day  the  Pope  chose  to  regard  the  Philippines  not 
as  a  part  of  the  East  Indies,  but  as  a  dependency  of 
Mexico!  Manila  merchants  were  not  allowed  to  trade 
with  China,  only  six  hundred  miles  away,  because  that 
would  give  offence  to  the  Portuguese  at  Macao,  who, 
by  the  same  Pope,  had  been  presented  with  all  the 
eastern  hemisphere — or  at  least  with  as  much  of  it  as 
they  saw  fit  to  appropriate. 

So  Manila  was  ordered  to  trade  exclusively  with  the 
port  of  Acapulco  in  Mexico,  whence  her  produce  was 
carried  across  the  Isthmus,  ultimately  reaching  Seville 
or  Cadiz  as  part  of  a  Mexican  consignment. 

The  history  of  the  Philippines  is  not  very  interest- 
ing reading — it  is  mostly  a  repetition  of  the  same  sort 
of  thing,  insurrections  put  down — execution  and  tort- 
ure of  native  rebels — quarrels  between  the  Arch- 
bishop and  the  Governor — plagues  and  epidemics — 
piratical  raids  —  friction  between  slave-owners  and 
abolitionists — between  merchants  and  officials. 

The  first  picturesque  event  in  the  history  of  the  isl- 
and was  in  1574,  when  an  enterprising  Chinese  admiral, 
with  sixty-two  junks,  sailed  up  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Pasig  River  and  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  town. 
His  proposition  was  declined,  whereupon  the  Chinese 
landed,  drove  the  Spaniards  before  them,  penetrated 

[  52] 


RELATIONS   OF   SPAIN    WITH   CUBA 

to  the  fort  and  set  fire  to  it.  Ultimately  the  Celestial 
invaders  were  ejected,  but  they  left  behind  them  a 
reputation  for  bravery  and  enterprise  that  made  Span- 
ish ofificials  feel  uncomfortable  whenever  rumor  of 
Chinese  pirates  was  in  the  air. 

In  the  history  of  Manila  the  only  people  who  have 
ever  penetrated  that  fort  as  enemies  have  been  Anglo- 
Saxon  and  Chinese.  The  Chinese,  from  time  imme- 
morial, have  regarded  the  Philippines  as  within  their 
"  sphere,"  although  they  have  never  formulated  a 
Monroe  doctrine  which  the  rest  of  the  world  has  felt 
compelled  to  respect. 

When  the  British  took  Manila,  in  1762,  they  re- 
ceived much  assistance  from  the  Chinese  population, 
for,  owing  to  England's  generous  treatment  of  natives 
in  India,  the  Chinese  had  already  learned  to  respect 
British  justice  no  less  than  the  power  of  her  guns. 
With  this  in  mind,  I  was  not  surprised,  in  1898,  to  find 
the  victory  of  Admiral  Dewey  and  the  United  States 
troops  celebrated  by  English  flags  hung  out  from  every 
Chinese  house  in  Manila.  In  some  way  they  associated 
England  with  America,  partly  because  of  the  common 
language,  partly  from  the  good  relations  existing  be- 
tween the  English  warships  and  our  own,  largely,  per- 
haps, because  English  and  American  merchants  formed 
one  club  for  social  purposes.  It  may  be,  too,  that  the 
Chinese  sought  to  [)rotect  themselves  against  possible 
pillage  by  claiming  the  rights  of  alleged  British  sub- 
jects; for  at  one  time  it  was  not  quite  clear  as  to 
whether  Americans,  Spaniards,  or  Eilipinos  would  con- 
trol the  situation.  Pillaging  had  been  allowed  after 
the  conquest  of  1762,  although  for  only  three  hours. 

[  5^  I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

But  as  the  English  had  at  that  time  native  Indian 
troops  in  the  expedition,  I  have  no  doubt  that  three 
hours  proved  fairly  adequate  to  all  reasonable  require- 
ments. In  1762  the  Chinese  had  particular  reason  for 
not  loving  the  Spaniards,  for  they  were  then  compelled 
to  choose  between  leaving  the  island  and  joining  the 
Church  of  Rome.  To  those  of  us  who  know  the  China- 
man, the  inference  is  reasonable  that  the  larger  pro- 
portion found  no  difificulty  in  reconciling  ancestral 
worship  and  "  Joss  pidgen  "  with  transubstantiation 
and  the  immaculate  conception. 

John  Chinaman  accommodates  himself  to  every  pos- 
sible contingency.  In  one  corner  of  his  Joss  house  he 
glorifies  St.  Francis  with  candles  and  holy  water,  in 
another  he  squares  himself  with  his  native  demons. 
The  shrine  of  a  converted  Chinaman  was  about  as  puz- 
zling to  a  Grand  Inquisitor,  as  are  to  the  average  Prot- 
estant an  altar  and  reredos  in  a  ritualistic  Anglican 
church. 

As  in  Cuba,  so  in  the  Philippines,  the  first  and  the 
greatest  question  that  agitated  the  Spanish  Court 
was  the  treatment  of  natives.  One-half  of  the  Church 
maintained  that  slavery  was  contrary  to  Christian 
ethics;  the  other  half  insisted,  with  equal  parade  of 
scholarship  and  vastly  more  vehemence,  that  slavery 
was  an  essentially  elevating  institution,  particularly 
when  it  was  a  heathen  who  was  made  to  work  and  a 
Spaniard  or  Christian  who  profited  thereby.  With 
this  question  was  entangled  its  corollary  whether  the 
Filipinos  should  be  made  Christians  by  violence,  or 
whether  they  should  be  persuaded  by  reason.  Evi- 
dently the  Bishop  of  Manila  had  achieved  scant  sue- 

[  54  ] 


RELATIONS   OF   SPAIN   WITH    CUBA 

cess  by  the  exercise  of  the  gentle  methods,  for  he 
stoutly  maintained  toward  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
century  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  Church  to  convert 
every  native  or  put  him  to  death. 

The  Church  held  that  heresy  was  a  capital  ofifence, 
and  we  cannot  see  how  a  well-brought-up  bishop  of 
that  day  could  be  pardoned  for  allowing  mere  human 
sentimentality  to  stand  between  heretical  or  heathen 
natives  and  the  enforcement  of  "  Christian "  law. 
The  quarrel  grew  so  fierce  that  finally  the  Crown  in- 
terfered and  drew  up  regulations  for  the  government 
of  the  island  which  practically  delivered  the  natives  into 
the  hands  of  bishops  and  governors,  with  no  protection 
save  that  implied  in  a  "  recommendation  to  mercy." 

Henceforth  each  native  was  to  pay  a  poll-tax  of  eight 
Reals  (one  dollar)  annually.  Of  this  poll-tax  ninety 
per  cent,  went  to  the  Spanish  Crown,  the  clergy,  and 
the  military  establishment.  The  remaining  one  Real 
was  nominally  used  for  the  benefit  of  the  colony.  But 
the  evidence  on  that  point  is  not  satisfactory. 

As  Spain  then  had  only  a  very  small  proportion  of 
the  natives  under  her  dominion,  and  for  that  matter 
never  succeeded  in  completely  colonizing  Luzon  after 
four  hundred  years  of  effort,  this  poll-tax  proved  a  very 
unsatisfactory  one,  at  least  to  those  who  counted  all 
Filipinos  as  subject  to  its  provisions. 

A  (Icrman  official  who  had  been  stationed  in  Africa, 
once  described  to  mc  the  panic  created  among  his 
colleagues  when  regulations  and  forms  were  received 
from  I'crlin,  calling  for  detailed  information  regarding 
the  native  capacity  for  bearing  taxation.  Column  after 
column  was  to  be  filled  in  with  certificates  of  birth, 

r  ss  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

character  of  occupation,  nature  of  dwelling,  and  the 
many  sources  of  income  known  to  a  Prussian  police- 
man. The  panic  in  the  Government  Bureau  was  as 
nothing  compared  with  the  blank  amazement  of  a 
naked  Kaf^r  whose  worldly  inventory  comprised  a 
war-club  and  a  hut  of  reeds. 

Imagine  this  arboreal  savage  at  his  breakfast  in  the 
top  of  a  cocoanut  tree  suddenly  challenged  by  a  Prus- 
sian gendarme  with  an  order  to  come  down  and  pay 
his  income  tax! 

Governments  that  play  with  colonies  perform 
strange  freaks! 

Spain  would  have  lost  her  colonies  much  earlier  but 
for  the  fact  that  her  officials  on  the  spot  treated  the 
law  of  Madrid  to  a  great  extent  as  a  dead  letter.  The 
King  abolished  tithes,  abolished  slavery,  gave  land 
only  to  those  who  were  bona-fide  settlers,  and  even 
forbade  missionary  or  military  expeditions  unless  the 
bishop  gave  his  consent.  But  these  provisions  are 
hardly  worth  enumerating,  because,  practically, 
through  the  parish  priest  and  the  local  governor,  the 
Church  squeezed  out  of  the  native  all  that  could  be 
squeezed,  and  the  treasury  of  Madrid  received  what- 
ever balance  there  was  when  all  the  white  officials  in 
Manila  had  been  satisfied.  Cuba  and  Manila  are  two 
of  the  richest  islands  in  the  world;  yet,  as  in  the  case 
of  Cuba,  so  with  Manila,  as  long  as  she  was  isolated 
from  all  but  Spanish  influence  she  was  a  drag  upon  the 
mother  country. 

Even  so  late  as  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury Philippine  afifairs  were  submitted  by  the  King  to 
a  special  committee,  and  it  was  determined  to  abandon 

[  56] 


RELATIONS   OF   SPAIN    WITH   CUBA 

them.  That  this  was  not  done  was  owing  to  the  Friar 
Moraga,  a  man  of  burning  zeal  in  missionary  work, 
who  threw  himself  at  the  feet  of  Philip  III.  and  begged 
passionately  that  the  "  most  Christian  monarch " 
might  not  abandon  all  these  heathen  souls  to  damna- 
tion! The  King  yielded  for  reasons  wholly  theolog- 
ical, and  Mexico  was  once  more  ordered  to  saddle 
herself  with  the  deficits  in  the  PhiHppines. 

Of  course  freebooting  in  Eastern  waters  contrib- 
uted to  Phihppine  distress,  almost  as  much  as  it  did 
in  the  West  Indies — the  Dutch  and  EngHsh  frequently 
intercepting  the  Mexican  fleet,  to  say  nothing  of 
occasionally  plundering  towns  on  the  coast.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  Phihppine  trade 
was  so  crippled  by  the  regulations  of  the  mother  coun- 
try that  Manila  could  not  even  fill  the  three  annual 
galleons  permitted  by  law.  Her  merchants  were  not 
allowed  to  send  Chinese  goods  to  Mexico  (and  thus 
on  to  Spain),  although  at  the  same  time  Portugal  had 
direct  communication  with  Macao.  The  Mexican  lady 
who  wanted  a  dress  of  Chinese  silk  had  to  order  it 
from  Spain  after  a  journey  more  than  half  way  round 
the  world.  That  very  piece  of  silk  had  probably 
passed  her  own  door  on  the  way  to  Spain.  But  even 
this  proved  insufficient  "  protection,"  for,  in  1718,  in 
consequence  of  petitions  from  such  silk  manufactur- 
ing towns  as  Toledo,  Valencia,  and  Granada,  trade  in 
Chinese  silk  was  absolutely  forbidden  to  the  Philip- 
pines. This  law  was  thought  so  cruel  by  the  Mexican 
colonists,  as  well  as  by  those  in  tlu-  rhilippinos,  thai 
the  Viceroy  of  Mexico  made  rcprescnlatiotis  at  homo, 
in  hope  of  having  it  resc-iiidcd.     Jhil,  on  the  contrary, 

I   57  J 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

this  drastic  measure  was  made  even  more  sweeping, 
and  no  Chinese  silk  was  permitted  either  in  Spain  or 
any  of  her  colonies.  The  most  inveterate  "  protection- 
ism "  of  modern  times  seems  enlightened  after  this. 
The  result  of  this  "  high  protection  "  was,  that  the 
Chinese  market  which  Spain  renounced  was  amply 
exploited  by  the  enterprising  seamen  of  England  and 
Holland;  and  the  American-Spaniards,  no  less  than 
those  at  home,  found  that  contraband  silk  was  quite 
as  becoming  and  no  dearer  than  any  other.  So  Span- 
ish trade  suffered,  colonial  progress  was  checked,  and 
the  only  ones  that  flourished  were  the  smugglers  and 
officials.  In  1734  the  effect  of  this  policy  showed  itself 
so  clearly,  particularly  in  the  falling  off  of  receipts  from 
Manila,  that  the  law  was  modified  and  the  far  Eastern 
colony  was  allowed  to  send  annually  to  Acapulco,  Asi- 
atic goods  worth  500,000  pesos  (dollars),  and  to  take 
in  return  goods  from  Mexico  worth  up  to  1,000,000 
pesos. 

The  effect  of  this  slight  liberality  was  immediate  and 
refreshing.  Business  improved  all  around.  There  was 
a  "  boom  "  in  Manila  Bay.  Everybody  who  had  a  dol- 
lar or  could  borrow  one  helped  to  load  the  limited 
number  of  ships  permitted  by  Government.  Soldiers, 
officials,  priests,  widows — all  rushed  to  share  in  the 
profits  of  the  newly  opened  trade.  The  rich  monas- 
teries advanced  money  at  rates  fluctuating  between 
twenty-five  and  fifty  per  cent.  The  Crown  officials 
connived  at  the  ships  carrying  double  or  treble  what 
was  allowed  by  law.  The  captain  of  a  merchantman 
received  40,000  pesos  as  his  share  of  the  venture,  the 
navigator  got  20,000,  the  supercargo  got  nine  per  cent. 

I  58] 


RELATIONS   OF   SPAIN   WITH   CUBA 

— everybody,  excepting  the  natives,  made  money 
rapidly.  Those  were  golden  days  in  the  Philippines, 
but  they  were  of  short  duration;  for  the  home  govern- 
ment soon  commenced  once  more  to  legislate — this 
time  in  favor  of  expelling  the  Chinese  (1755).  Im- 
mediately the  receipts  from  the  Philippines  fell  ofif 
30,000  pesos  a  year,  in  spite  of  the  large  numbers  of 
Chinamen  who  permitted  themselves  to  be  baptized. 
The  Government  sought  to  replace  the  Chinese  by  a 
joint  stock  company,  but  this  institution  soon  went 
into  bankruptcy. 

When  England  handed  back  the  Philippines  in  1763, 
the  Spaniards  put  to  death  6,000  Chinamen  by  way 
of  a  warning,  and  tried  to  revive  trade  in  the  old  way; 
but  it  was  like  flogging  a  horse  that  has  fallen  from 
overwork.  In  1783  Carlos  III.  took  4,000  shares  in  a 
joint-stock  company  that  was  to  monopolize  Philip- 
pine trade  and  secure  vast  profits  to  the  shareholders. 
The  royal  Court  of  Spain  stood  in  regard  to  the  ex- 
ploitation of  the  Philippines  much  as  the  British 
aristocracy  stood  toward  the  Chartered  Company 
which  developed  Rhodesia  and  sent  Dr.  Jameson  to 
Johannesburg.  This  company  ultimately  collapsed, 
but  for  a  time  it  served  a  good  purpose,  for  the  Crown, 
in  its  greed  for  money,  permitted  reforms  which  indi- 
rectly benefited  both  the  islands  and  the  mother-coun- 
try. This  company  was  permitted  henceforth  to  trade 
directly  with  Spain,  without  having  to  pass  through 
Acapulco  as  formerly.  Ships  might  be  bought  any- 
where, for  the  space  of  two  years;  ship  material  might 
enter  Spain  free  of  dnty,  likewise  the  wares  of  the 
Philip])ines.     Spaniards  were  now  permitted  to  bring 

[  59  ] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

Chinese  and  Japanese  products  from  IManila  direct  to 
Spain.  Four  per  cent,  of  the  profits  were  dedicated 
to  the  agricultural  development  of  the  colony,  but  this, 
as  well  as  the  other  provisions  of  thi^  comparatively 
liberal  character,  was  neutralized  by  the  favoritism 
shown  in  the  selection  of  officials. 

However,  from  now  on  in  the  history  of  the  Philip- 
pines, large  consignments  of  pepper,  sugar,  cotton, 
tobacco,  and  indigo  figure.  The  company  was  saved 
from  bankruptcy  in  1825  by  advances  made  by  the 
King,  but  finally  disappeared  in  1834. 

The  nineteenth  century  opened  a  new  era  for  the 
Philippines,  as  well  as  for  Cuba.  The  two  revolutions, 
in  France  and  the  United  States,  had  found  an  echo 
throughout  the  world — even  in  the  colonies  of  Spain. 
The  Jesuits,  who  might  have  directed,  if  not  stemmed, 
this  current,  had  been  expelled,  and  public  sentiment 
sought  its  leaders  among  men  whose  dominant  pas- 
sion was  hatred  of  Spain — hatred  of  her  ignorant  friars 
— hatred  of  her  corrupt  officials.  Little  by  little  Spain 
had  revealed  to  her  own  children  that  she  was  not 
merely  cruel  and  rapacious,  but  worse  than  that — she 
was  weak. 


[  60  ] 


V 

THE    TOTTER    AND    TUMBLE    OF    SPAIN'S 
COLONIAL   EMPIRE 

"Napoleon  had  every  manner  of  success  a-nd  abused  his  good  fort- 
une to  the  uttermost  {sans  mesure^y 

— Talleyrand,  '*  Memoires,"  I.,  302. 

Influence  of  the  Monroe   Doctrine  on  South  America — The  Fight 
Between  Spain  and  Her  Colonies 

IN  1823  President  James  Monroe  announced  to 
the  powers  of  Europe  that  the  United  States 
claimed  a  certain  protecting  influence  over  the 
whole  of  the  American  Continent.  Here  are  some  of 
the  words  he  used,  the  sum  of  the  so-called  Monroe 
Doctrine:  "  We  (the  United  States)  could  not  view  an 
interposition  for  oppressing  them  (the  Spanish-Ameri- 
can Republics),  or  controlling  in  any  other  manner 
their  destiny,  by  any  European  power,  in  any  other 
light  than  as  a  manifestation  of  an  unfriendly  disposi- 
tion toward  the  United  States  .  .  .  the  American 
Continents  should  no  longer  be  subjects  for  any  new 
luir()])ean  colonial  settlement." 

That  declaration  virtually  guaranteed  the  indepen- 
dence of  every  Spanish  colony  from  California  to  Cape 
Horn.  And  when,  shortly  after  that,  the  I'ritish  (iov- 
ernment,  under  the  leadership  of  ("anning,*  conlirmed 

•George  rimniiu'.,  Imni  in  1770,  was  Minister  of  l-'orcign  Allnirs 
from  1K22  until  his  curly  <l<:illi  in  1K27. 

[    61    ] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

the  position  of  the  United  States  by  recognizing  the 
independence  of  the  different  repubHcs,  all  talk  of  re- 
conquering the  lost  colonies  was  smothered  and  the 
now  liberated  territories  were  free  to  fight  one  another 
and  make  revolutions  as  often  as  they  chose  without 
any  interference,  at  least  from  Madrid. 

But  Spain  tottered  a  long  while  before  she  finally 
fell.  It  shows  that  there  were  some  good  elements  in 
her  administration,  mingled  with  the  much  that  was 
bad,  for  no  system  wholly  corrupt  could  have  spread 
one  language  and  one  church  creed  over  so  vast  a 
territory  in  so  short  a  time. 

Spain's  administration  of  her  colonies  was  bad  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  political  economist,  but  it  did 
not  shock  those  who  suffered  under  it  half  so  much 
as  it  shocks  us  of  to-day. 

The  impulse  which  finally  drove  the  mother  country 
from  the  mainland  of  America  was  not  far  removed 
from  the  one  which  united  the  thirteen  colonies  of  the 
United  States  in  1776.  In  both  cases  it  was  felt  that 
the  attitude  of  the  home  government  was  not  merely 
unjust  but  arrogant;  the  personal  pride  of  the  colonists 
was  hurt  quite  as  much  as  their  pockets.  The  officials 
of  the  home  government  not  only  regarded  the  colo- 
nies as  means  of  enriching  themselves  and  the  Crown, 
but  treated  their  colonial  fellow-Spaniards  with  indif- 
ference, if  not  contempt. 

So  long  as  Spain  was  overwhelmingly  strong  the 
Spanish  creole  submitted  with  a  fairly  good  grace;  but 
the  French  Revolution  and  the  Napoleonic  wars,  re- 
sulting in  Spain's  being  treated  as  a  province  of  France, 
raised  among  Spanish-Americans  the  feehng  that  their 

[  62  ] 


TUMBLE  OF  SPAIN'S  COLONIAL  EMPIRE 

national  glory  was  as  safe  on  the  River  Plate  or 
under  the  shadow  of  Chimborazo  as  in  the  palaces  of 
Madrid. 

Though  Spain  showed  herself  incapable  of  defending 
her  transatlantic  possessions,  she  still  refused  to  allow 
them  any  voice  in  the  management  of  their  own  af- 
fairs and  persisted  in  excluding  Creoles  (native  colonial 
Spaniards)  from  all  positions  of  responsibility.  Out  of 
one  hundred  and  sixty  viceroys  of  Spain,  only  four  have 
been  Creole — out  of  six  hundred  and  two  Captains- 
General,  only  fourteen  .have  been  Creole.  Suspicion 
and  jealousy  marked  Spain's  attitude  toward  her  far- 
away children,  and  who  can  wonder  if  they  failed  to 
show  loyalty  when  she  needed  their  help? 

In  1898  the  public  sentiment  of  Spanish  America 
was  with  the  mother  country  against  the  United  States; 
in  1823  the  United  States  was  hailed  as  the  unselfish 
big  brother  protecting  the  younger  republics  against 
the  mother's  cruelty — so  much  have  times  changed! 

During  the  wars  of  revolutionary  France  against  the 
coalition  of  monarchical  Europe,  Pitt  was  approached 
with  a  scheme  for  assisting  in  the  wrenching  of  the  colo- 
nies from  Spain.  A  revolutionary  society  was  formed 
in  London  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  liberating  the 
different  South  American  republics;  but  the  peace  of 
Basel  (1795)  checked  the  movement  for  a  time;  at 
least,  so  far  as  I'^ngland  could  officially  appear  in  the 
matter,  liut  war  soon  broke  out  again,  and  after  the 
destruction  of  the  French  and  Spanish  fleets  at  Trafal- 
gar (1805),  T'jigland  felt  her  hands  free. 

Admiral  Popham  was  at  Cape  Town.  He  had  ar- 
ranged to  take  over  Sonlli  Africa  from  tlie  Dulcli,  and 

[  63  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

therefore,  in  1806,  he  sailed  across  the  South  Atlantic 
and  dropped  anchor  in  the  river  Plate. 

He  had  been  induced  to  land  here  through  repre- 
sentations of  the  revolutionary  party.  They  found  no 
difificulty  in  occupying  Buenos  Ayres,  though  General 
Beresford,  who  commanded  the  land  force,  had  under 
him  only  1,800  men.  The  English  acted  here  as  they 
had  in  Havana  and  ]\Ianila  in  1762,  granted  complete 
freedom  of  worship,  and  opened  the  port  to  free  trade, 
at  least  with  England — an  enormous  concession  com- 
pared with  what  the  colonies  had  formerly  enjoyed. 
Commerce  at  once  revived,  shipping  crowded  the  river, 
and  the  short  British  occupation  made  it  impossible 
for  that  colony  ever  again  to  rest  contented  under  a 
policy  of  Spanish  exclusiveness. 

But,  though  the  revolutionists  had  fought  to  drive 
Spain  out,  they  had  no  mind  to  permit  the  English  to 
stay  in.  So  now  they  turned  upon  their  liberators, 
after  the  manner  of  the  Filipinos  in  1898. 

With  that  revulsion  of  feeling  so  frequently  seen  in 
hot-blooded  races,  Spaniards  and  Creoles  forgot  their 
feud  and  united  in  common  hatred  of  the  hereditary 
enemy,  the  hated  Anglo-Saxon.  Within  two  weeks 
of  the  first  occupation  of  Buenos  Ayres  by  the  English, 
the  latter  were  attacked  by  an  Argentine  force  and 
driven  to  take  refuge  in  the  citadel.  The  "  patriots  " 
who  had  promised  Admiral  Popham  an  easy  victory 
over  the  country,  now  disappeared. 

In  June  of  1807  reinforcements  arrived  from  Eng- 
land— 12.000  men  on  eighteen  warships,  and  eighty 
transports,  commanded  by  General  Whitelock.  To 
the  amazement  of  the  world  this  force  failed  in  their 

[  64  ] 


TUMBLE  OF  SPAIN  S  COLONIAL  EMPIRE 

attempt  to  take  the  town  from  the  Argentines;  on  the 
contrary  they  were  forced  to  march  back  to  their  ships 
and  embark  for  home.  It  was  not  a  mihtary  disaster 
of  the  first  rank,  and  a  nation  that  had  just  won  the 
battle  of  Trafalgar  and  was  on  the  eve  of  driving  Napo- 
leon's army  from  Spain  had  no  need  to  be  cast  down 
by  so  small  a  check,  but  considering  the  nature  of  the 
foe  and  the  quality  of  the  invading  force,  it  stands  out 
among  memorable  British  losses — such  as  Majuba 
Hill,  Saratoga,  Yorktown,  New  Orleans,  Colenso — 
the  same  old  story — brave  men;  incompetent  gen- 
erals. 

This  was  the  time  of  great  battles.  The  year  1805 
was  the  year  of  Austerlitz  as  well  as  Trafalgar.  1806 
was  the  year  of  Jena,  when  Napoleon  chased  the  whole 
Prussian  army  from  the  borders  of  South  Germany 
clear  to  the  edge  of  Russia,  whipping  it  into  shreds. 
1807  was  the  year  of  Friedland.  The  next  year  af- 
forded Napoleon  his  "  Parterre  of  Kings  at  Erfurt." 
In  1809  came  more  crash  of  big  armies,  the  battle  of 
Wagram  in  the  midst.  The  Russian  campaign  was  in 
1812,  in  181 3  was  that  of  Leipzig,  in  1814  was  the 
capture  of  Paris,  and  Waterloo  came  in  181 5.  Any 
gaps  in  these  events  were  made  up  by  Wellington's 
fighting  in  Spain,  and  England's  small  expeditions  in 
every  part  of  the  world.  No  wonder,  then,  that  the  loss 
of  Puienos  Ayrcs  should  have  been  (juickly  forgotten. 

But  for  Si)anish  colonial  history  no  event  was  more 
important  than  this.  The  news  of  it  was  an  insi)ira- 
ti(jn  to  every  revolutionary  committee,  not  merely  (^n 
the  Plate,  but  in  Chili  and  I  Vru,  Venezuela  and  Mexico, 
Colonists  iiad  shown  what   llicy  could  do.     They  had 

f  (>S   I  ' 


THE  CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

not  merely  stood  their  own  against  Spain,  they  had 
saved  Argentine  from  the  foreign  enemy — no  less  an 
enemy  than  England!  While  Spain  was  powerless  to 
protect,  the  colonists  had  themselves  organized  a  mili- 
tary force  and  achieved  victory  without  any  assistance 
from  the  mother  country! 

Henceforth  there  was  no  more  thought  of  tolerating 
the  tyranny  of  former  days.  The  colonists  w'ere,  many 
of  them,  ready  to  remain  Spanish  and  monarchists  on 
the  basis  of  just  and  equal  treatment  with  those  of  the 
mother  country,  but  Spain  lacked  the  courage,  or  un- 
derstanding, to  seize  the  opportunity  thus  offered.  She 
let  things  drift — allowed  the  revolutionary  w'ave  to 
increase  in  magnitude,  and  made  concessions  when  it 
was  too  late.  If  ever  she  felt  a  trifle  relieved  from 
momentary  fear,  her  arrogance  returned,  and  she 
sought  to  revive  the  commercial  restrictions  which  had 
done  so  much  mischief  in  the  past.  The  short  English 
occupation  had  united  all  classes  of  colonists  on  one 
subject  at  least,  that  though  they  w'ished  no  British 
soldiers,  they  meant  to  have  the  liberty  which  those 
soldiers  had  shown  them  how  to  procure. 

In  the  same  year  that  Prussia  rose  against  the  French 
yoke  (1813),  Argentine  declared  herself  free,  and  from 
that  day  to  the  proclamation  of  President  Monroe 
(1823),  her  struggle  for  independence  was  a  perpetual 
source  of  encouragement  to  the  rest  of  South  America, 
aided  by  the  events  on  the  continent  of  Europe. 
When  Spain  w^as  at  the  feet  of  Napoleon,  her  colonies 
were  proportionately  elated;  but  when  Wellington 
finally  drove  the  French  out  of  the  Peninsula,  Repub- 
lican prospects  declined,  for  now  the  mother  country 

[  66  ] 


TUMBLE  OF  SPAIN'S  COLONIAL  EMPIRE 

became  free  to  fight  her  rebelUous  offspring.  Argen- 
tine alone  maintained  practical  self-government,  if  not 
complete  independence,  throughout  those  stormy 
years  of  revolution  and  counter-revolution.  In  1810, 
while  a  Spanish  viceroy  was  nominally  ruHng  the  coun- 
try, a  popular  assembly  collected  the  taxes,  conducted 
the  government,  and  tolerated  the  viceroy  as  an  orna- 
mental feature.  Half  of  the  ruling  assembly  consisted 
of  Creoles,  and  the  presence  of  the  Spanish  flag  affected 
but  little  the  progress  of  the  country. 

The  monarchs  formed  a  "  Protective  Union,"  a  syn- 
dicate, a  species  of  Trust,  whose  object  was  to  guaran- 
tee perpetuity  of  monarchy  by  divine  right.  The  po- 
litical police  exaggerated,  where  it  did  not  invent,  tales 
of  revolutionary  attempts,  and  it  is  possible  that  most 
of  the  monarchs  constituting  the  so-called  Holy  Alli- 
ance were  sincere  in  the  belief  that  they  were  serving 
God  by  suppressing  every  manifestation  of  popular 
desire  for  self-government.  England — at  least  gov- 
ernmentally — waged  war  against  political  discontent 
with  nearly  the  same  weapons  as  those  used  by  Alex- 
ander of  Russia.  Discontent  was  wide-spread  through- 
out Great  Britain;  there  was  rioting  in  many  cities. 
The  troops  which  had  distinguished  themselves  on  con- 
tinental battle-fields  now  had  to  turn  their  bayonets 
against  the  mobs  of  their  home  counties.  The  public 
mind  was  agitated  by  plots  for  assassinating  not  only 
monarchs,  but  cabinet  ministers,  and  thus  for  a  time 
a  majority  of  the  English  Parliament  was  ready  to  sup- 
port any  measure  opposed  to  revolution,  and,  conse- 
(|ucntly,  to  sustain  Spain  against  licr  republican  colo- 
nics.    But  there  was  a  limit  to  Knglisli  strength  and 

[  ^>7] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

English  patience.  Spain  proved  so  helpless  even  at 
home,  that  her  pretensions  to  subdue  the  American 
rebels  appeared  almost  grotesque.  In  1819  she  gath- 
ered a  large  force  together  near  Cadiz,  proposing  a 
grand  reconquest  of  South  America  under  the  sym- 
pathetic auspices  of  the  Holy  Alliance.  But  the  offi- 
cers who  were  to  command  the  expedition  had  not 
been  paid,  and  they  were  but  half  satisfied  when  the 
Government  promised  them  each  an  increase  of  rank 
in  lieu  of  cash.  The  men,  however,  22,000  in  number, 
were  constantly  reminded  by  friends  of  liberty  that  al- 
ready Spain  had  sent,  since  181 1,  42,000  men,  who  had 
been  killed  either  by  disease  or  by  the  bullets  of  the 
enemy.  Time  dragged;  the  Government  had  not  pro- 
vided enough  transports;  the  feeling  against  the  war 
received  new  strength,  and  it  culminated  in  a  military 
revolution  which  put  an  end  for  the  moment  to  all 
transatlantic  schemes. 

Then  came  the  upsetting  of  the  Spanish  Government 
at  home,  and  the  substitution  in  England  of  a  Liberal 
Ministry  (1822)  in  lieu  of  Castlereagh. 

Canning  saw  in  the  independence  of  the  Spanish 
republics  advantages  of  trade  far  outnumbering  those 
to  be  got  from  supporting  the  pretensions  of  a  mon- 
archy which  had  so  frequently  demonstrated  its  in- 
capacity for  governing  either  at  home  or  abroad. 

In  supporting  the  United  States  and  the  Monroe 
Doctrine,  he  gratified  the  love  of  liberty,  which  is  in- 
stinctive in  English  people;  he  secured  the  hearty  in- 
dorsement of  the  British  merchant,  who  appreciated  the 
commercial  advantages  involved;  he  secured  the  good- 
will of  the  United  States.     President  Monroe  recog- 

[  68] 


TUMBLE  OF  SPAIN'S  COLONIAL  EMPIRE 

nized  the  independence  of  Venezuela  in  1822,  and 
Europe  immediately  called  a  conference  of  the  great 
powers  for  the  purpose  of  sustaining  the  pretensions 
of  Spain. 

England,  in  1822,  not  only  declined  to  attend  this 
conference  (of  Verona)  but  remarked  pointedly  to 
Spain  that,  in  case  she  proceeded  with  violence  against 
her  colonies,  the  British  Cabinet  would  recognize  their 
independence. 

And  this  happened  when  George  III.  had  been  dead 
but  two  years,  in  the  reign  of  a  George  scarcely  less 
hostile  to  popular  government! 

History  moved  rapidly  in  those  days.  In  1823  the 
Spanish  King,  Ferdinand  VII.,  made  another  effort  to 
unite  the  Holy  Alliance  in  his  favor — this  time  at  Paris, 
but  England  now  went  a  step  further  and  said  she 
would  be  present  only  on  condition  that  the  Spanish 
colonies  be  recognized  as  independent. 

Another  effort  in  1824  ended  with  even  less  encour- 
agement— England  in  that  year  recognizing  the  inde- 
pendence of  Argentine  by  making  a  commercial  treaty 
with  her. 

These  annual  surprises  culminated  in  1825,  when 
England  notified  the  world  that  she  was  sending  diplo- 
matic representatives  to  the  different  South  American 
republics  in  spite  of  Spanish  protests. 

The  wave  of  revolution,  which  swept  the  Spanish 
flag  from  the  mainland  of  America,  eventually  produced 
a  large  number  of  allcgc<l  republics  with  constitutions 
framed  on  that  of  VVasIiingloii  and  Adams,  Ii'lT(.Mson 
and  Franklin,  lint  liu  re  wore  several  efforts  made  to 
secure  independence  inidcr  a  monarchy,  showing  that 

I    <->•)  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

the  plan  suggested  in  1783  by  a  Spanish  Crown  Min- 
ister would  have  met  with  support  among  the  colonists 
themselves.  The  ideal  republic  has  not  been  secured 
anywhere  on  earth,  least  of  all  among  people  of  the 
Latin  race.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  of  all  the 
Spanish- American  States,  those  which  have  shown  the 
largest  amount  of  civic  energy  and  stability  have  been 
the  ones  farthest  removed  from  the  Equator,  Chili  and 
the  Argentine  at  the  south,  Mexico  at  the  north.  The 
two  most  southerly  ones  have  developed  the  largest 
amount  of  political  and  religious  liberahty,  and  have 
in  consequence  attracted  considerable  immigration 
other  than  Spanish. 

Mexico,  owing  to  her  lack  of  good  harbors  and 
the  difficulty  of  penetrating  to  her  centres  of  popula- 
tion, developed  politically  and  commercially  more 
slowly  than  the  Argentine,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  her 
territory  touched  that  of  the  United  States. 

But  as  soon  as  regular  railway  service  was  estab- 
lished betw^een  Mexico  City  and  the  railway  system 
across  the  Rio  Grande,  Mexico  progressed  so  rapidly  as 
to  astonish  even  those  who  knew  her  best;  and  she 
now  moves  forward  in  pleasant  contrast  to  the  manner 
characteristic  of  her  former  self  and  her  sister  republics 
of  the  past  generation. 

The  Spanish  colonies  fought  the  mother  country 
long  and  furiously.  Yet  after  the  separation,  and  par- 
ticularly when  all  who  had  taken  personal  part  in  the 
quarrel  had  been  laid  to  rest,  old  ties  reasserted  them- 
selves. IMembers  of  the  same  family  who  had  been  on 
different  sides  during  the  war,  now  began  to  interest 
themselves  in  the  descendants  of  common  parents;  the 

[  70  ] 


TUMBLE  OF  SPAIN'S  COLONIAL  EMPIRE 

Spanish  colonist,  proud  of  his  Hneage  and  past  glories, 
yearned  for  a  holiday  in  the  Old  World,  and  first 
among  the  objects  of  interest  was  the  soil  that  pro- 
duced his  ancestors. 

The  same  feeling  that  impels  the  New  Englander  to 
visit  the  birthplace  of  Shakespeare  and  gaze  with  awe 
at  the  venerable  parchment  of  the  Magna  Charta,  in- 
duces the  Republican  citizen  of  Buenos  Ayres  or  Mex- 
ico to  visit  the  home  of  Cervantes  and  climb  the  lofty 
flights  of  the  Escurial. 

The  Spanish-American  colonist  is,  after  all,  a  Span- 
iard, and  let  us  not  forget  that,  in  the  miany  efforts 
now  making  for  realizing  Pan-American  ideals. 

The  books  that  feed  his  mind,  the  periodicals  that 
entertain  his  family,  the  news  that  is  dearest  to  him, 
the  visits  that  he  appreciates  most — these  are  not 
things  of  New  York,  London,  or  Hamburg,  but  of  old 
Spain.  The  ambitious  diplomatist  of  Spanish  America 
knows  the  relative  commercial  importance  of  the  dif- 
ferent great  powers,  but  the  Court  at  which  he  appears 
with  greatest  satisfaction  to  himself  (and  his  wife)  is 
the  Court  of  Madrid. 

We  in  America  of  the  north  are  apt  to  think  that  the 
Spanish-American  holds  us  in  affection — is  in  some 
mysterious  way  a  part  of  our  big  western  hemisphere 
family  life.  That  is  true  to  a  very  limited  extent — an 
extent  vastly  more  limited  than  many  of  our  statesmen 
are  willing  to  admit.  The  Spanish-American  is  not  un- 
willing to  recognize  that  in  times  past  American  po- 
litical expediency  made  it  advisable  that  Sjiain  slunild 
lose  her  colonies — just  as  in  1777  France  found  it  to 
her  interest  to  take  sides  with  Cleorge  Washington 

I  71    1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

against  George  III.  We  were  grateful  to  France  then, 
and  we  still  demonstrate  effusively  when  reference  is 
made  to  Lafayette  at  a  Fourth  of  July  banquet.  But 
sentiment  of  this  kind  did  not  prevent  the  United 
States  and  France  from  being  at  war  during  the  life  of 
Washington — nor  did  it  prevent  Napoleon  III.  from 
seeking  to  destroy  the  American  Union  during  our 
Civil  War. 

During  the  last  war  (1898)  the  sentiment  through- 
out the  Spanish-American  republics  was  emphatically 
opposed  to  the  United  States,  and  in  favor  of  the 
mother  country.  This  sentiment  was  just  as  pro- 
nounced in  Montevideo  or  Santiago,  as  in  Paris,  Rome, 
or  Barcelona.  Indeed  the  whole  Latin  world  was  ap- 
parently at  one  on  this  subject,  for  reasons  far  removed 
from  mere  commercial  considerations. 

Had  Spain  shown  the  capacity  to  carry  on  the  war, 
there  is  reason  to  think  that  she  would  have  found  in 
her  former  colonies  abundance  of  volunteers  who  would 
have  taken  up  arms  against  the  Yankee  with  enthu- 
siasm. For  Spain  is,  after  all,  the  mother,  and  her 
faults  have  been  largely  forgiven. 


[  72  ] 


VI 

LATTER-DAY   CUBA 


"We  must  prove  that  we  are  worthy  of  our  country  by  showing 
others  that  we  know  how  to  defend  it.  If  we  show  that  we  are 
unworthy  of  such  a  trust,  then  we  shall  go  under^ — Letter  of 
Blucher  to  the  King  of  Prussia,  October  8,  1809. 

Indifference  to  Emancipation  at  the  Beginning  of  the   Century — 
Prosperity  Under  Slavery — Influence  of  the  United  States 

IT  has  caused  some  surprise  that  when,  in  the  early 
part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  all  the  rest  of 
Spain's  important  colonies  declared  themselves  in- 
dependent, Cuba  and  Manila  and  Porto  Rico  remained 
loyal,  or  at  least  indifferent.  The  Philippines  were  geo- 
graphically so  much  isolated  that  the  movements  of 
Europe  were  scarcely  felt;  the  domination  of  the 
Church  was  all  but  complete,  and  the  man  for  the  hour 
was  not  there.  Cuba,  on  the  other  hand,  was  nearest 
to  Spain  on  the  direct  line  of  communication  between 
the  mother  country  and  her  rebellious  provinces;  the 
shores  of  the  United  States  were  barely  a  hundred  miles 
from  Havana,  and  American  public  sentiment  was  no 
less  friendly  to  Cuban  independence  than  was  that  of 
Mexico  or  the  Argentine.  If  ever  a  people  could  have 
been  described  as  ripe  for  revolution,  that  people  in- 
habited the  island  of  C  iiba  at  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

But  the  very  proxiniily  of  the  United  States  proved 
I   73   I 


THE  CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 


to  be  the  main  reason  for  Cuba's  satisfaction  in  the  ex- 
isting state  of  things.  Her  first  period  of  genuine  pros- 
perity began  with  the  war  between  England  and  her 
American  colonies  (1776- 1783),  and  the  wars  which 
followed  (1793-1815)  raised  the  Queen  of  the  Antilles 
to  a  still  greater  height  of  prosperity.  The  shipping 
which  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  came 
to  Havana  to  be  counted  by  dozens,  during  the  Na- 
poleonic wars  came  by  hundreds.  The  neutral  flag  of 
the  United  States  distributed  Cuban  sugar  throughout 
the  world;  plantations  increased,  slaves  increased, 
population  increased,  contentment  was  universal,  ow- 
ing to  the  helplessness  of  the  mother  country  and  the 
consequent  impunity  with  which  contraband  trade  was 
carried  on.  Cuba,  from  having  been  the  poorest  of 
Spain's  possessions  and  a  drag  upon  the  treasury  of 
Mexico,  had  become  in  the  first  quarter  of  this  cen- 
tury an  object  of  envy  to  her  sister  colonies,  to  say 
nothing  of  European  nations.  So  long  as  the  mother 
country  did  not  interfere  with  slavery  the  planters  of 
Cuba  cared  little  whether  their  ruler  were  viceroy  or 
president.  Like  their  fellow-planters  of  South  Caro- 
lina or  Louisiana,  they  placed  at  the  head  of  their 
political  creed  the  proposition  that  slavery  meant  pros- 
perity. When  in  181 2  Spain  passed  some  laws  against 
slavery  in  the  colonies,  Cuba  treated  them  as  a  dead 
letter.  The  first  serious  quarrel  wath  the  mother  coun- 
try was  in  181 7,  in  consequence  of  a  treaty  with  Eng- 
land which  stipulated  that  slavery  should  be  abolished 
in  1 82 1.  This  nearly  carried  the  Cubans  to  a  revolu- 
tion. The  mother  country,  however,  took  off  the  edge 
of  her  children's  wrath  by  permitting  them  in  the  inter- 

[  74  ] 


LATTER-DAY  CUBA 


val  to  purchase  slaves  wherever  they  chose.  The  result 
was  a  still  further  increase  of  prosperity,  more  planta- 
tions, more  slaves,  and  continued  good  prices  of  sugar 
and  tobacco.  Cuba  had  then  half  a  million  people, 
200,000  of  which  were  African  slaves.  . 

It  is  possible  that  Cuba's  reconciliation  to  the  anti- 
slavery  edict  sprang  from  her  conviction  that  it  would 
not  be  seriously  enforced — and  this  view  proved  cor- 
rect. From  1776  to  the  close  of  the  American  Civil 
War,  it  would  seem  as  though  providence  intended  to 
repay  Cuba  for  the  hard  times  through  which  she  had 
passed  in  the  preceding  centuries.  Events  that  were 
calamities  to  other  countries  proved  blessings  to  her. 
The  revolutions  on  the  mainland  caused  numbers  of 
Spanish  families  to  bring  their  wealth  to  Havana. 

In  1819  the  first  vessel  propelled  by  steam  appeared 
in  her  waters,  and  steam  was  introduced  in  the  sugar- 
mills.  Cuba  was  now  so  rich  that  her  treasury  assisted 
in  defending  Florida  against  the  United  States,  to  say 
nothing  of  assisting  the  mother  country  against  her 
sister  colonies.  Even  the  abolition  of  slavery,  which 
England  enforced  in  her  own  West  Indian  possessions, 
piled  still  higher  the  wealth  of  this  favored  colony. 
British  planters  became  poorer  from  day  to  day;  their 
plantations  went  out  of  cultivation,  or  at  least  dimin- 
ished seriously  in  value,  and  what  the  Englishman  lost 
the  Cuban  gained,  because  the  Englishman  abolished 
slavery  in  fact,  while  Spain  did  so  merely  in  name. 
Cuba  was  never  so  prosperous  as  when,  under  practical 
.slavery,  she  cultivalcd  licr  estates  at  the  expense  of 
bankrupt  Englishmen.  In  1850  she  had  a  population 
of  1,000,000,  of  whom  nearly  324,000  were  slaves.    The 

[  75'] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

Government  revenue  was  about  $10,000,000,  sixty-five 
per  cent,  of  which  was  from  customs.  This  extraor- 
dinary state  of  prosperity  had  been  built  up  through  a 
strange  succession  of  fortunate  causes,  largely  assisted 
by  the  impotence  of  the  mother  country  to  enforce 
her  harmful  laws. 

And  when  the  slavery  forces  of  the  United  States 
had  carried  through  successfully  the  annexation  of  the 
great  southwest  territory  (Texas,  etc.)  which  they  con- 
fidently looked  forward  to  as  a  future  land  of  slavery, 
they  commenced  an  agitation  for  the  annexation  of 
Cuba  for  practically  the  same  reasons.  In  1850  the 
first  of  many  filibustering  expeditions  started  from  our 
shores  for  the  purpose  of  raising  an  insurrection  against 
Spain.  The  leader  was  a  cashiered  Spanish  of^cer 
named  Lopez,  who  landed  at  Cardenas  on  May  19, 
1850,  with  four  hundred  men.  That  was  about  the 
number  that  Jameson  had  when  he  reached  Krugers- 
dorp  in  1896,  and  they  met  with  a  like  fate,  in  so  far 
that  each  was  unsuccessful.  Lopez,  however,  tried  it 
again  in  the  following  year,  was  caught,  and  put  to 
death  as  a  pirate.  His  crime  was  the  same  as  that  of 
Dr.  Jameson,  and  the  punishment  was  anticipated. 
But  as  half  of  England  hailed  the  popular  "  Dr.  Jim  " 
as  a  hero,  so  in  America  the  press  cried  out  for  venge- 
ance against  Spain,  and  in  New  Orleans  volunteers  en- 
rolled themselves  for  the  conquest  of  Cuba. 

Instead  of  taking  this  warning,  however,  and  calling 
the  leading  Cubans  to  a  share  in  the  government, 
Spain  sought  to  suppress  every  manifestation  of  dissat- 
isfaction in  the  old  vicious  way.  The  then  Captain- 
General  of  Cuba  had  the  courage  to  protest  against 

[  76-] 


LATTER-DAY   CUBA 


merely  repressive  measures,  and  he  pointed  out  to 
Madrid  that  certain  reforms  were  essential  to  the  con- 
tinued prosperity  of  the  island.  The  Madrid  Govern- 
ment expressed  its  thanks  by  dismissing  him  from 
office. 

So  long  as  Spain  was  utterly  helpless,  Cuba  pros- 
pered. But  in  proportion  as  she  regained  strength  to 
enforce  her  ungenerous  administration  Cuban  pros- 
perity declined,  until  at  the  beginning  of  the  American 
Civil  War  even  the  planters  pretty  generally  regretted 
that  they  had  not  cast  in  their  lot  with  their  sister  colo- 
nies and  profited  by  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  In  1861 
Spain  attempted  to  annex  San  Domingo.  After  a  war 
which  lasted  as  long  as  the  slavery  war  in  America,  she 
retired,  defeated  and  bankrupt,  and  saddled  Cuba  not 
merely  with  the  cost  of  this  enterprise,  but  also  with 
that  of  the  wretched  joint  attempt  with  Napoleon  III. 
against  Mexico.  The  result  was  that  Cuba,  instead  of 
being  able  to  contribute  12,000,000  pesos  (dollars)  an- 
nually to  the  mother  country,  could  from  this  time  on 
barely  meet  her  own  obligations.  Banditti  made  their 
appearance  on  the  highways,  and  plantations  com- 
menced to  suffer  under  a  taxation  which  they  could 
not  bear.  For  a  few  years  the  island  had  profited 
somewhat  by  the  American  Civil  War,  notably  through 
blockade  running  and  the  slave-trade,  for  during  the 
struggle  many  American  planters,  either  anticipating 
the  ultimate  triumph  of  the  North  or  forced  to  raise 
money,  sold  llicir  slaves  to  dealers  who  smuggled  them 
over  to  Cuba.  J 11  1863  no  less  than  4,300  blacks  were 
intercepted  by  the  S|)anish  authorities,  but  that  did 
not  j)revent  them  from  ulliiiialciv  reaching  their  desti- 

I   77   I    ' 


THE  CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

nation  along  with  the  rest  who  had  not  been  turned 
back. 

With  the  fall  of  the  slave  power  in  America  Cuban 
prosperity  declined,  for  it  went  hand  in  hand  with  in- 
creased exactions  on  the  part  of  Spain,  and  increasing 
contact  with  the  United  States.  In  1868  Queen  Isa- 
bella was  driven  from  the  throne,  Castelar  became 
President  of  the  Spanish  Republic,  and  Cubans  awoke 
at  last  to  a  strange  picture  of  New  Spain,  wherein  all 
parts  of  the  Spanish-speaking  world  enjoyed  self-gov- 
ernment, save  only  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  and  the  far-away 
Philippines. 

If  anything  could  add  to  Cuban  discontent  at  this 
time  it  was  the  final  abolition  of  slavery  decreed  by 
the  Spanish  Republic.  Cuba  henceforth  had  as  little 
to  hope  from  the  democracy  as  from  the  aristocracy  of 
Old  Spain.  The  war  of  independence,  which  had  com- 
menced in  1868,  lasted  for  ten  years,  and  completed  the 
estrangement  of  the  two  countries,  though  the  Spanish 
flag  still  waved  on  for  twenty  years  longer.  That  Cuba 
did  not  then  achieve  complete  independence  was 
largely  owing  to  the  courage,  honesty,  and  sagacity  of 
General  Martinez  Campos,  who  was  not  merely  effi- 
cient in  the  field,  but  maintained  a  character  for  keep- 
ing the  Government  pledges  which  drew  many  to  him 
who  would  trust  no  one  else.  In  1876  Spain  sent  to 
Cuba  145,000  soldiers,  and  Cuba's  monthly  deficit  on 
account  of  the  war  was  about  $200,000.  She  had  to 
borrow  on  a  falling  market,  and  financially  went  from 
bad  to  worse.  As  the  African  negroes  were  emanci- 
pated, she  sought  to  draw  coolies  from  China  and  India, 
but  with  indifferent  success.    Plantations  were  cut  up 

[  78  ] 


LATTER-DAY   CUBA 


into  smaller  sections  in  the  hope  that  free  negroes 
would  work  them,  but  the  result  was  not  encourag- 
ing. The  exports  from  the  island  did  not  increase,  and 
the  disposition  to  become  American  became  all  but 
universal.  Havana  was  bankrupt,  the  island  over- 
loaded with  debt,  yet  she  was  saddled  with  the  cost  of 
all  Spain's  consular  and  diplomatic  representation  in 
America.  She  had,  besides,  to  pay  large  sums  in  postal 
subsidy  and  support  of  steamship  lines  to  Spain,  and 
also  to  pay  the  travelling  expenses  of  Spanish  officials. 
It  was  small  comfort  for  a  Cuban  to  be  told  that  he 
enjoyed  the  privilege  of  any  other  Spaniard,  that  he 
had  a  vote  in  the  Cortes  at  Madrid,  that  Cuba  was  a 
province  of  Spain  and  no  longer  a  colony.  All  that  was 
on  paper.  There  was  no  influence  in  the  mother  coun- 
try strong  enough  or  honest  enough  to  battle  success- 
fully for  justice  to  that  island. 

The  Cuban,  with  his  tale  of  misrule  and  his  plea  for 
better  government,  found  in  New  York  and  Boston 
audiences  ready  to  give  him  a  hearing,  to  assist  him 
in  securing  justice.  In  Madrid  the  same  man  was 
greeted  with  the  shrugs  of  people  who  barely  knew 
Cuba  by  name;  who  had  griefs  of  their  own  more  than 
enough,  and  who  wondered  why  Cubans  could  not  do 
as  they  did,  suffer  and  say  nothing. 

In  the  spring  of  1898,  between  the  blowing  up  of 
the  Maine  and  the  declaration  of  war,  1  made  a  run 
across  Spain  on  a  bicycle,  starting  at  the  northwestern 
corner,  passing  through  Madrid,  and  ending  at  the 
coast  near  Valencia,  and  sn  up  lo  Barcelona.  'IMiat 
little  trip  explained  many  tilings  to  ine  which  hitherto 
had  Ijccn  strange.     When   I   k-ft   New   Wnk  nothing 

I  79  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

was  talked  of  excepting  the  possibility  of  war — in  Lon- 
don attention  was  divided  between  the  doings  of  Par- 
liament and  the  impending  war.  On  the  continent  of 
Europe  it  was  the  daily  theme  of  the  metropolitan 
papers.  Everywhere  in  the  world  the  subject  was  one 
of  popular  interest,  save  only  in  the  country  most 
immediately  affected.  The  moment  I  entered  Spain 
I  ceased  to  see  newspapers;  people  ceased  to 
talk  politics;  all  were  serenely  ignorant  of  matters 
beyond  the  border,  and,  happily  for  me,  indifferent 
as  well. 

In  certain  commercial  circles  of  Barcelona  or  Madrid 
hatred  of  Americans  was  pronounced,  but  that  was  a 
small  affair  and  did  not  affect  the  broad  mass  of  the 
population  who  tilled  the  fields  and  drove  their  asses  to 
market  loaded  with  wine  and  cheese  and  wood.  No 
one  cared  if  I  were  American  or  Chinese  or  German. 
I  was  a  stranger,  and  that  was  enough  for  the  average 
courtly  and  hospitable  Spaniard.  If  I  mentioned  a  war 
with  America  or  Cuba  it  excited  the  same  sort  of  an- 
swer that  might  be  expected  from  an  English  laborer 
when  asked  about  a  military  expedition  on  the  African 
West  Coast  or  in  the  hills  of  India.  The  Spanish  peas- 
ant was  told  that  war  was  necessary,  that  it  carried 
away  his  neighbors,  his  children  perhaps,  that  they 
went  to  the  Philippines  or  to  Cuba,  or  to  some  distant 
city  of  the  Peninsula  where  there  was  a  strike  or  riot, 
and  sometimes  they  never  came  back.  That  is  all  the 
Spanish  peasant  of  to-day  knows  about  it.  America  to 
him  is  a  vague  conception  of  semi-civilized  territory  far 
away,  where  people  are  always  making  trouble,  and 
where  Spain  has  to  send  many  troops  in  order  to  sup- 

[  80  ] 


LATTER-DAY   CUBA 


press  rebellion.  The  United  States  is  merely  one,  more 
or  less,  in  that  remote  agglomeration! 

In  Barcelona  I  saw  caricatures  of  Americans — 
mainly  depicted  as  swaggering  hoodlums  with  filthy 
habits  and  wholly  incapable  of  fighting.  They  were 
commonly  referred  to  as  swine  who  would  run  away 
the  moment  they  saw  a  Spanish  soldier. 

That  was  Spain  on  the  eve  of  the  war  which  was  to 
cost  her  the  remains  of  her  colonial  empire,  and  a  de- 
feat on  sea  and  land  so  complete  as  to  suggest  rather 
the  hand  of  God  than  of  man. 

This  was  the  Spain  that  Cuba  sought  to  move — to 
which  she  pleaded  so  long — for  which  she  suffered  so 
patiently.  For  many  years  Cuba  loved  the  mother 
country,  and  she  did  not  take  up  arms  until  her  best 
men  were  convinced  that  from  Spain  nothing  could 
be  hoped  but  further  humiliation  and  further  misery. 

In  one  of  the  expeditions  during  the  Spanish  War 
our  party  captured  a  Cuban  suspected  of  fighting  in 
the  Spanish  ranks.  He  was  in  tatters  and  his  alarm 
was  grotesque,  for  he  anticipated  hanging  as  the  mild- 
est lot  that  could  befall  him — according  to  what  had 
been  told  him  by  his  officers. 

Our  men  (of  the  First  Infantry,  regulars)  at  once 
commenced  to  make  a  pet  of  him,  to  share  their  rations, 
and  to  give  him  material  for  rei)airing  his  wardrobe. 

SJKjrtly  before  reaching  Key  West  1  asked  him  how 
he  was  getting  on. 

"  f)h,  Senor,  1  have  one  great  sorrow!" 

"  What  is  that?  "  I  asked,  lioping  I  tnighl  help  him. 
It  grieves  nie  to  Ihiiik  lli.il  you  (Hd  not  make  pris- 
(jners  the  rest  of  my  pooi-  family." 

I    «i    J 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

And  those  words  have  been  often  in  my  thoughts 
while  studying  the  colonial  history  of  Spain. 

Contrast  for  a  moment  the  attitude  of  a  Canadian  or 
an  Australian  going  to  England  with  that  of  a  Cuban 
visiting  Spain.  The  Cuban  is  familiar  with  the  most 
advanced  machinery  made  in  Massachusetts  or  Con- 
necticut. He  returns  to  a  country  where  agriculture 
is  conducted  on  principles  that  have  scarcely  advanced 
beyond  what  remained  when  the  Moors  were  expelled 
by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  Between  Havana  and  New 
York  the  Cuban  has  travelled  by  sea  and  land  in 
luxury,  and  with  a  speed  that  excites  the  admiration 
of  experienced  travellers.  He  goes  home  to  travel  on 
railways  whose  express  trains  do  not  go  as  fast  as 
the  freight  cars  of  America,  and  whose  best  accom- 
modation does  not  equal  what  we  regard  as  our  most 
inferior.  In  a  country  burdened  with  military  and  po- 
lice expenditure,  railway  travel  is  so  insecure  that 
even  to-day  each  train  leaving  Madrid  is  placed  under 
military  escort — a.  precaution  that  is  not  considered 
necessary  in  even  the  most  remote  parts  of  the  United 
States. 

The  Cuban  on  his  way  to  Madrid  by  way  of  New 
York  makes  the  acquaintance  of  a  public  sentiment 
that  is  alive  to  human  rights,  he  reads  newspapers 
which,  with  all  their  faults,  present  the  news  of  the 
world  with  some  degree  of  accuracy.  In  the  United 
States  he  finds  an  intelligent  sympathy  for  his  condi- 
tion, and  above  all  a  promise  of  commercial  prosperity 
in  case  of  close  alliance. 

Compared  with  what  he  has  experienced  in  America, 
Spain  is  a  backward  province — an  illiterate  community 

[  82  ] 


LATTER-DAY   CUBA 


of  priests,  officials,  and  peasants,  who  but  cumber  a  soil 
that  once  was  illustrious. 

The  Cuban  cannot  love  the  Yankee,  nor  can  he  at 
present  look  up  to  Spain  with  respect.  It  is  the  duty 
of  Uncle  Sam  to  give  him  a  government  which  he 
can  at  least  respect,  and  which  will,  in  time,  develop 
into  complete  home  rule  for  the  Pearl  of  the  Antilles. 


[  « ^  1 


VII 

THE    PHILIPPINES    IN    OUR   TIME 

''When  a  people  has  prosperit-^,  education,  moral  sense,  and  civil 
liberty,  it  will  allow  itself  to  be  ruined  rather  than  surrender 
these. ^''  — Gneisenau,  1807,  Pertz,  I.,  322. 

Spanish  and  English  Systems  Compared — Influence  of  the  Roman 
Church — The  Yankee  in  Manila 

THROUGHOUT  the  nineteenth  century 
Spain's  administration  of  the  Philippines  re- 
mained practically  what  it  had  been  in  the 
previous  three  centuries.  The  commerce  of  the  Islands 
improved,  as  did  that  of  Cuba,  not  so  much  because 
Spain  herself  had  profited  by  experience,  as  that  her 
very  impotence  and  corruption  permitted  the  laws  of 
the  mother  country  to  be  violated  almost  with  im- 
punity. The  loss  of  her  great  South  American  Empire, 
in  the  first  quarter  of  the  century,  caused  her  to  attach 
considerable  importance  to  the  fragments  that  re- 
mained, and  her  constant  need  of  money  inclined  her  to 
forgive  almost  anything  in  a  governor  who  could  ease 
the  financial  strain.  Throughout  this  century  the 
Philippines  were  regarded  as  a  colony  from  which  for- 
eign influence  should  be  excluded,  even  Chinese.  To- 
bacco was  treated  as  a  Government  monopoly,  and  the 
natives  were  compelled  not  only  to  plant  a  given 
amount,  but  to  sell  it  to  the  Government  at  twenty 

[  84] 


THE   PHILIPPINES   IN   OUR   TIME 

per  cent,  below  its  market  value.  The  Filipinos  were 
nominally  free,  but  had  to  pay  a  heavy  poll-tax,  to  sub- 
mit to  forced  labor  fifteen  days  in  the  year,  and  further 
to  aid  the  Government  by  paying  a  heavy  tax  upon 
everything  within  reach,  from  a  cock-fight  to  a  mort- 
gage. Yet  with  the  best  intentions  in  this  direction 
Spain  could  not,  any  more  than  China,  exclude  the  in- 
fluence exerted  by  the  progress  of  British  commerce 
in  the  Far  East.  The  Filipino,  the  Chinese,  and  the 
Creole  merchant  saw  trade  spring  up  wherever  a  Brit- 
ish Governor  made  his  residence,  and  only  the  Spanish 
priest  and  official  desired  to  check  this  influence. 
Within  this  century  Singapore  and  Hong-Kong  be- 
came neighbors  to  Manila,  and  each  of  these  ports  was 
soon  swarming  with  busy  merchantmen — achieving 
more  in  ten  years  than  three  centuries  of  Spanish  rule. 
Hong-Kong  was  originally  regarded  by  the  British 
Government  as  fit  only  to  throw  away.  Unlike  the 
Philippines,  she  was  saved  to  the  Crown  not  by  the 
religious  fanaticism  of  a  missionary  priest,  but  by  a 
commercial  instinct  strong  in  British  public  sentiment. 
The  United  States  did  not  dream  of  ultra-marine  ex- 
pansion in  1 84 1,  but  her  trade  with  China  and  the 
Philippines  bore  favorable  comparison  with  that  of 
England.  Her  tea-clippers  raised  the  credit  of  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  throughout  the  eastern  world.  Be- 
fore the  Civil  War  and  before  protectionism  had  laid 
its  withering  hand  upon  American  shipi)ing,  the  skip- 
pers of  Salem  and  New  York  commanded  sliips  that 
were  better  built  and  bctlcr  manned  than  those  of  any 
otlicr  coniilry;  and  vvlial  is  more  to  the  point,  they 
c.'inifd  liaiidsonu-  prolils  fdi-  those  who  vcnltu'cd  their 

I   «5    I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

money.  American  merchants  worked  hand  in  hand 
with  those  of  England  in  building  up  Anglo-Saxon 
prestige  from  Tokio  to  Calcutta;  and  in  the  days 
when  I  first  visited  those  waters  (1876)  no  commer- 
cial house  enjoyed  greater  credit  in  China  and  Manila 
than  Russell  &  Co. 

At  the  same  time  the  administration  of  Manila  was 
a  by-word  for  inefficiency  and  corruption;  if  it  had  a 
rival  in  this  respect  it  was  the  Portuguese  Macao.  And 
yet  the  Spaniard  might  with  some  plausibility  reply  to 
such  a  charge  by  pleading  bad  government  at  home — 
that  Spain  gives  her  colonies  the  best  administration 
that  can  be  evolved  at  Madrid.  This  absolves  her  at 
home,  but  does  not  satisfy  those  who  suffer  from  her 
colonial  rule.  If  there  is  a  general  law  to  be  drawn 
from  the  study  of  universal  history,  it  is  that  sooner 
or  later  the  land  falls  to  him  who  can  best  make  use 
of  it.  In  the  struggle  for  the  good  things  of  this  world 
the  strong  have  been  successful,  because  strength  gen- 
erally goes  with  discipline,  moderation,  and  certain 
rough  manly  virtues.  The  strongest  man  cannot  long 
remain  so  if  he  indulges  in  debilitating  practices;  if 
he  fails  to  control  his  temper  and  other  nervous  forces. 
It  is  so  with  an  army,  and,  above  all,  with  a  nation. 

The  Spain  that  conquered  the  Western  Hemisphere 
was  a  nation  bred  up  to  the  exercise  of  public  liberty. 
The  Spain  that  drove  out  the  Moors  had  been  reared 
in  a  political  atmosphere  where  the  ruler  governed  not 
by  divine  right  alone,  but  by  consent  of  the  governed. 
In  tracing  the  progress  of  Europe  through  the  dazzling 
reigns  of  such  despots  as  Charles  V.  and  Louis  XIV., 
and  through  the  French  Revolution,  to  these  days  of 

[  86  ] 


THE   PHILIPPINES    IN   OUR   TIME 

newspapers  and  stump  speeches,  we  must  not  imagine 
that  all  this  is  merely  evolution  from  absolutism  to  pop- 
ular self-government.  On  the  contrary,  the  glories  of 
these  monarchs  rested  on  the  ruins  of  local  liberties 
which  they  had  ruthlessly  trampled  underfoot.  It  was 
the  generation  reared  in  liberty  that  fought  the  battles 
of  despotism  under  the  name  of  rehgion.  The  Span- 
ish warriors  who  dared  every  danger  of  the  western 
world  went  forth  in  the  name  of  the  cross,  little  dream- 
ing that  the  Church  whose  symbol  they  bore  aloft  was 
helping  to  forge  the  chains  of  their  subsequent  slavery. 
The  money  that  flowed  from  the  new  colonies  made 
the  Spanish  monarchy  of  Charles  V.  and  Philip  II. 
brilliant  in  the  pages  of  history,  but  the  result  was  at 
the  expense  of  Spanish  liberty.  All  the  gorgeousness 
of  the  Escurial  could  not  atone  for  the  suppression  of 
the  Spaniard's  ancient  rights  to  vote  supplies  and  con- 
trol expenditure. 

The  Church  did  heroic  service  in  stimulating  war- 
like energy  and  administering  colonies  of  Indians,  but 
in  the  long  run  it  has  shown  itself  unequal  to  the  task 
it  undertook  with  so  much  energy  four  hundred  years 
ago. 

There  was  a  time  when  the  England  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth offered  a  certain  rough  analogy  to  the  Spain  of 
Philip  II.  Elizabeth  committed  acts  so  arbitrary  as  to 
satisfy  the  most  loyal  .supporter  of  absolutism;  she 
sent  eminent  people  to  the  block  or  to  the  rack  with 
no  more  let  or  hindrance  than  a  Grand  Inqtii.sitor. 
Outwardly  she  appeared  to  be  tyranny  personified,  and 
her  people  apparently  submitled  with  the  acfiuicscencc 
of  servility.     In  Spain,  on  (he  olher  hand,  (he  old  forms 

I  «7  I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

survived,  and  the  monarch  moved  in  a  cloud  of  priests 
and  lawyers.  Compared  to  the  capricious  and  passion- 
ate Elizabeth,  Phihp  II.  exhibited  the  outward  appear- 
ance of  a  monarch  heavily  hedged  about  by  limitations, 
religious  and  legal,  constitutional  and  local.  But  here 
these  analogies  end.  The  power  of  Philip  was  military, 
founded  upon  a  large  standing  army  and  the  strongest 
navy  of  his  time.  In  addition  to  having  the  Church  as 
his  ally,  he  was  in  a  position  to  enforce  obedience  to 
his  will  by  military  force  alone,  if  necessary.  At  one 
time  it  seemed  as  though  his  mailed  fist  could  reach 
to  any  corner  of  Europe  to  crush  a  heretic  or  a  rival 
monarch. 

Queen  Elizabeth,  on  the  other  hand,  had  not  a  sin- 
gle regiment  or  naval  squadron  on  which  she  could 
rely  to  carry  out  an  act  which  her  people  might  deem 
unjust.  When  the  Spanish  Armada  threatened  Eng- 
land, her  queen  could  do  no  more  than  invite  the  co- 
operation of  her  yeomen  and  sailors  in  saving  her 
throne  from  destruction.  Tyrants  cannot  count  upon 
enthusiastic  answers  to  such  invitations.  The  tyranny 
of  Elizabeth  was  not  the  tyranny  of  Philip.  Elizabeth 
committed  occasional  acts  of  tyranny  in  a  long  reign 
characterized  by  shrewd  regard  for  English  liberty  and 
constitutional  law.  Philip  II.  permitted  an  occasional 
liberal  action  in  a  reign  of  monotonous  despotism  and 
fanatical  cruelty.  When  Elizabeth  went  forth  as  queen 
the  people  hailed  her  with  enthusiasm  and  cheerfully 
subscribed  handsomely  for  her  enterprises.  The  Span- 
ish monarch  died  without  knowing  that  his  people 
could  laugh  or  dance.  They  obeyed,  and  he  asked  no 
more. 

I  88] 


THE   PHILIPPINES    IN   OUR   TIME 

Spanish  rule  has  lasted  wonderfully  long,  with  all  its 
abuses.  In  the  Philippines  it  has  been  almost  exclu- 
sively Church  rule,  and  from  that  rule  we  Americans 
can  learn  much,  for  the  Roman  Catholic  missionary 
priest  makes  government  the  study  of  his  life.  He 
does  not  go  for  a  short  term  of  years  to  enrich  him- 
self at  the  expense  of  the  natives  and  then  return  to 
enjoy  his  gains  at  home,  but  as  a  rule  he  spends  the 
best  years  of  his  life  at  his  post;  he  at  least  under- 
stands the  temper  of  the  people  he  is  governing,  and 
can  avoid  the  costly  mistakes  made  by  amateur  ad- 
ministrators. 

If  the  English  colonial  ofificial  is  to-day  a  highly  effi- 
cient public  servant,  it  is  because  he  learns  his  duties, 
and  when  he  is  appointed  to  a  Government  post  he  un- 
derstands that  he  will  secure  promotion,  will  be  well 
paid,  and,  after  a  certain  number  of  years,  will  retire 
on  a  pension.  In  a  general  way  the  colonial  official 
resembles  the  Spanish  priest  of  the  Philippines,  barring 
certain  obvious  dififerences.  The  white  official  expects 
to  support  a  wife  and  family,  the  priest  has  not  this 
worry  on  his  mind.  The  white  official  must  think  of 
educating  his  children,  of  placing  his  sons  in  a  career, 
of  getting  husbands  for  his  daughters.  All  these  cares 
the  priest  ignores. 

l>ut  the  colonial  official,  more  than  the  Government 
servant  in  any  other  kind  of  work,  must  of  necessity 
be  in  a  position  to  exercise  daily,  personal  authority 
and  inllucnce  over  people  who  must  obey;  and  yet 
whose  obedience  is  worth  lii  lie  unless  it  is  yielded  will- 
ingly, 'j'hc  Spaniards  have  had  four  hundred  years  of 
colonial  experience,  and  yet  lliey  have  failetl.     Are  we 

r  '^'^  I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

to  conclude  that  we  too  must  fail?  England,  in  1783, 
was  forced  to  retire  from  this  country — yet  her  colonial 
greatness  may  be  said  to  have  commenced  with  that 
notable  year. 

England  has  had  plenty  of  colonial  checks — she  has 
committed  more  blunders  than  any  other  nation  could 
have  repaired  and  still  survive.  She  has  had  formid- 
able insurrections  to  suppress;  her  colonial  fighting 
has  been  almost  interminable.  Spain,  on  the  other 
hand,  has  enjoyed  comparative  quiet  in  her  colonies  for 
nearly  three  centuries.  If  ever  a  nation  had  a  free 
field  for  colonization  it  was  Spain  in  her  early  days: 
and  she  has  failed  hopelessly. 

Did  she  fail  because  of  the  Church,  or  in  spite  of  the 
Church?  That  question  will  never  be  decided.  The 
bulk  of  evidence  would  point  to  the  Church  as  the 
agency  that  held  the  natives  loyal  to  the  civil  adminis- 
tration long  after  the  home  Government  had  ceased 
to  be  formidable.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  priests  of 
the  Philippines  have  occupied  the  isolated  stations  of 
that  country  successfully,  and  have  done  so  without 
any  great  show  of  military  force.  The  whole  internal 
administration  of  the  colony  has  been  practically 
guided  by  priests,  and  while  many  abuses  are  laid  to 
their  door,  the  remedy  lies  not  in  immediately  abolish- 
ing the  priesthood,  but  in  gradually  reforming  abuses 
and  building  up  a  colonial  civil  service  that  shall  do 
all  that  the  priests  have  done,  and  do  it  better. 

If  the  priests  are  bad  in  the  Philippines,  it  is  a  sign 
that  the  Government  at  home  has  been  bad.  No  one 
has  aught  but  praise  for  the  Roman  Catholic  mission- 
aries in   China,   notably  the  Jesuits  near  Shanghai. 

[  90  ] 


THE   PHILIPPINES   IN   OUR   TIME 


Why  should  priests  of  the  same  Church  be  tyrants  at 
Manila  and  angels  of  mercy  at  Hong-Kong? 

It  is  of  prime  importance  that  at  the  beginning  of 
our  colonial  career  we  impress  the  Filipinos  with  the 
superiority  of  our  civilization  to  that  of  Spain.  Our 
ofificials  and  soldiers  should  not  merely  be  more  honest, 
more  courageous,  they  should  also  appear  to  the  na- 
tives as  in  every  way  better  worth  copying.  The 
American  official  should  speak  Spanish,  and  at  least 
one  or  more  of  the  native  languages. 

During  the  war  the  soldiers  of  the  United  States 
were  so  shabbily  dressed,  that,  in  general,  they  suffered 
by  comparison  with  the  13,000  Spanish  prisoners  who 
strolled  about  the  streets  of  Manila.  The  natives  and 
others  who  desired  to  assist  our  Government  in  admin- 
istering the  country,  were  not  favorably  impressed  by 
American  official  dignity.  Our  troops  were  mainly 
volunteers,  and  while  most  of  them  had  fought  bravely, 
the  bulk  of  the  officers  were  men  who  owed  their  posi- 
tions to  political  influence,  and  were  not  fitted  to  oc- 
cupy administrative  posts,  least  of  all  in  a  new  colony. 
Many  of  them  were  ignorant  of  military  practice  and 
neglected  their  men — consequently  discipline  was  lax. 
The  American  volunteers  whom  I  saw  about  Manila 
resembled  anything  rather  than  the  warriors  of  a  great 
nation — and  the  fault  was  not  theirs,  but  that  of  an 
inefficient  military  administration  at  Washington. 

The  natural  thing  for  an  honest  government  to  have 
done  was  to  have  railed  in  the  assistance  of  Americans 
wlio  lirul  livcfl  in  the  Philippines;  if  that  were  impos- 
sible, then  to  have  called  in  the  aid  of  such  as  were  at 
least  familiar  with  (hat  part  of  the  world  in  general. 

I   ')^    I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

In  1898  I  could  find  but  a  single  American  consul 
who  had  been  a  year  in  the  Far  East,  and  not  one  who 
knew  any  language  but  English.  The  men  who  offi- 
cially represented  us  in  Chinese  waters  at  the  outbreak 
of  the  Spanish  War,  were  not  only  of  no  official  value, 
they  were  in  most  instances  disgraceful  to  the  com- 
munity that  sent  them  forth.  Notable  exceptions, 
such  as  John  Fowler  at  Cheefoo,  do  but  emphasize  this 
national  scandal. 

At  the  very  outset,  therefore,  we  impressed  the  Fili- 
pinos with  the  worst  rather  than  the  best  features  of 
our  civilization.  To  them  our  army  was  a  mob  of 
very  brave  and  very  shabby  men;  our  officials  were 
coarse  politicians  who  could  drink  much  whiskey  and 
knew  nothing  of  the  country  or  its  language.  The 
result  is  what  might  have  been  anticipated. 

The  Filipino,  of  all  the  natives  of  the  Far  East,  has 
a  character  which  endears  him  to  me.  He  has  in 
his  blood  a  suggestion  of  the  chivalrous  Japanese; 
the  dignity  and  hospitality  of  the  unspoiled  Spaniard; 
the  ferocity  of  the  Malay  and  the  secretiveness  of  the 
Chinaman.  In  America  we  have  been  pleased  to  cari- 
cature him  as  a  man  half  negro,  half  monkey.  That 
is  far  from  the  truth.  Filpinos  are  highly  intelligent 
creatures,  and  our  fault  has  been  to  suppose  that  we 
can  rule  such  people  by  force  alone.  Other  nations 
have  failed  at  this  game,  and  it  is  for  us  to  profit  by 
their  example. 


[92] 


VIII 

THE  NEGRO  AS  AN  ELEMENT  IN  COLONIAL 
EXPANSION 

♦*  It  is  the  same  all  over  Hayti  .  .  .  all  that  White  en- 
ergy, industry,  and  intelligence  once  initiated  and  carried  on  has, 
since  the  disappearance  of  the  White  man,  and  the  ascendancy  of  the 
Black,  practically  dropped  out  of  being. ' ' — H  e^keth  Prichard, 
September,  1900.    The  Geographical  Journal. 

The  Negro  in  America — South  Africa — West  Indies — As  a  Soldier 
— Equality  with  Whites 

LET  us  speak  of  the  negro  with  some  measure 
of  frankness.  Forty  years  ago  we  no  more 
thought  of  questioning  the  wickedness  of  slav- 
ery than  the  virtue  of  Christianity — or  Republicanism. 
People  were  either  slave-holders  or  abolitionists;  not 
necessarily  from  knowledge,  but  from  a  conviction  akin 
to  that  which  induces  members  of  one  religious  sect 
to  suffer  death  rather  than  surrender  an  article  of  faith 
about  which  all  are  equally  ignorant.  In  the  seven- 
teenth century  half  of  the  white  race  fought  the  other 
half  over  the  interpretation  of  a  few  mystical  words  in 
the  Bible,  and  from  i860  to  1865,  one-half  of  the 
clergymen  of  the  United  States  denounced  the  other 
half  for  their  views  regarding  the  capacity  of  the  negro 
for  liberty,  if  not  self-government.  That  (|uestion  was 
settled  not  by  an  appeal  to  the  jndgmeni  of  mni  loni 
pctent  to  express  an  opinion,  but  by  a  long  war  which 

I   <M    I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

ended  in  the  victory  of  the  side  that  had  most  men 
and  money.  The  American  Civil  War  determined  that 
negroes  should  not  be  held  as  slaves  in  the  United 
States,  but  otherwise  it  left  the  black  problem  unsolved. 

Among  the  many  causes  uniting  in  the  North  to 
suppress  slavery  in  the  South  the  moral  one  no  doubt 
predominated.  The  impassioned  oratory  of  such 
courageous  humanitarians  as  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
found  an  answering  voice  throughout  the  more  north- 
ern States  where  the  white  man  respected  labor,  and 
believed  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  applied 
to  every  human  creature  without  distinction  of  race. 

Yet  the  black  man  has  no  greater  enemy  than  the 

/    enthusiastic  white  philanthropist,  who  has  absorbed  his 

ethnological  knowledge  from  the  pages  of  "  Uncle 

Tom's  Cabin,"  and  who  ends  by  victimizing  the  African 

whom  he  desires  to  benefit.*    From  the  day  when  Co- 

*  Negroes  were  the  object  of  mob  violence  on  the  streets  of  New 
York  in  the  summer  of  1900.  The  Rev.  William  Brooks,  the  colored 
pastor  of  St.  Mark's  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  in  West  Fifty-third 
street,  preached  a  sermon  before  a  large  congregation  on  "The  Story  of 
the  New  York  Riot."  During  the  sermon  the  feelings  of  the  congrega- 
tion were  at  fever  heat,  and,  despite  the  pastor's  frequent  admonitions  to 
be  calm,  his  hearers  twice  interrupted  the  sermon  with  vigorous  applause. 
He  said  : 

"  I  have  been  visiting  the  riot  victims  and  making  an  investigation.  I 
have  a  book  of  facts.  What  I  say  here  to-night  may  send  me  before  the 
courts,  possibly  to  jail.  In  making  the  following  charges  against  the 
police,  I  invite  investigation  :  — 

"  Innocent  men  were  cruelly  assaulted. 

"  The  clubbing  in  nearly  every  case  was  done  by  the  police. 

"We  have  not  found  a  single  '  tough  '  character  among  the  victims 
maltreated,  but  honest,  hard-working  persons. 

"  Respectable  and  helpless  colored  women  who  appealed  to  the  police 
for  protection  were  cursed  and  threatened  for  their  petition. 

"  Men  and  women  prisoners  were  beaten  by  the  police  while  getting 
in  and  out  of  the  patrol,  and  while  on  the  way  to  the  police  stations. 

"  Men  were  beaten  in  the  station-houses. 

"  Men  and  women  were  taken  from  their  beds  in  a  nude  condition  by 
the  police." 

[94] 


NEGRO   AN   ELEMENT    IN    EXPANSION 

lumbus  brought  the  first  African  as  a  slave  to  the  West 
Indies,  down  to  this  year,  1900,  when  the  lynching  and 
intimidation  of  negroes  forms  a  familiar  item  in  our 
newspapers,  the  negro  has  been  studied  from  two  ex- 
treme points  of  view,  that  of  the  professional  philan- 
thropist at  home,  and  that  of  the  practical  planter  "  on 
the  spot."  The  liberation  of  African  slaves  not  only 
in  the  United  States,  but  by  England  and  Spain,  in  their 
respective  colonies,  was  effected  mainly  by  the  priest- 
hood, who  regarded  slavery  as  a  sin  in  the  eyes  of  God. 
Their  position  in  the  state  made  their  opinion  final  on 
the  subject  of  what  was  the  view  of  the  Almighty  on 
this  subject,  and  their  arguments  were  irresistible,  be- 
cause they  could  be  neither  proved  nor  disproved. 
The  Church  view  in  old  Spain  was  not  far  different 
from  that  entertained  by  the  home  churches  to-day  in 
England  and  our  Northern  States,  that  the  black  is 
inferior  only  so  long  as  he  remains  a  heathen.  When, 
however,  he  assents  to  missionary  persuasion,  he  is 
transformed  not  merely  into  a  soul  precious  to  the  Al- 
mighty, but  into  a  political  creature  fit  to  vote  by  the 
side  of  the  white  man. 

The  Boer  of  South  Africa,  who  knows  the  negro 
better  than  most  of  us,  who  is  not  only  a  devout  Bible 
Christian,  but  an  ardent  lover  of  liberty,  has  never  ad- 
mitted into  his  political  creed  the  proposition  that  all 
men  are,  ever  have  been,  or  ever  can  be,  ecjual.  The 
Boer  has  fought  his  way  through  Africa  when  the  odds 
were  ten  to  one  in  favor  of  the  Kaffir;  he  has  experi- 
enced every  form  of  native  treachery,  cowardice,  and 
cruelty;  he  has  founded  prosperous  farms  and  villages 
in  a  country  once  devastated  by  blood-thirsty  chiefs, 

I   ').S    I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

and  has  converted  black  savages  into  domestic  ser- 
vants. 

On  the  occasion  of  my  visit  to  South  Africa  imme- 
diately after  the  Jameson  Raid  (1896),  I  found  a  pretty 
general  condemnation  of  missionaries  among  English 
as  well  as  Boer  Afrikanders,  on  political  rather  than  re- 
ligious grounds.  The  white  settlers  of  all  nationalities 
regarded  it  as  injudicious  that  the  Christian  religion 
should  be  perpetually  dangled  before  the  eyes  of  the 
black  native  as  a  prize  by  means  of  which  he  was  to 
become,  in  some  mysterious  way,  the  equal  of  the  white 
man.  Missionary  teaching  was  far  from  inoculating 
the  KafHr  with  the  meekness  of  Our  Saviour;  on  the 
contrary,  employers  of  labor  regarded  the  raw  savage 
as  a  better  man  for  their  purposes  than  the  one  who 
had  learned  just  enough  of  our  reHgion  to  understand 
the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

No  nation  has  expended  more  energy  and  money  in 
effects  to  elevate  the  negro  than  the  United  States. 
Perhaps  it  would  be  more  just  to  speak  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  nation  in  one  breath,  for  the  moral  sentiment 
on  this  subject  is  not  very  different,  whether  we  refer 
to  London  or  New  York,  Chicago  or  Manchester.* 
The  same  England  that  carried  the  first  cargo  of  slaves 
to  Virginia  was  the  first  nation  to  abolish  slavery  in 
her  own  colonies.  In  America,  the  churches  of  the 
North,  with  the  assistance  of  rich  philanthropists,  have 
founded  schools  for  negroes,  and  every  college  of  the 

*  In  ^^33  England  voted  ;^20, 000,000  to  indemnify  slave-owners. 
The  slave-trade  had  been  abolished  by  England  in  1807,  by  the  United 
States  in  1808.^  In  the  great  Civil  War  General  Sherman  claimed  to  have 
destroyed  in  his  raids  more  property  than  was  represented  by  the  whole 
slave  indemnity  voted  by  England  in  1833. 

[   96   ]    ' 


NEGRO   AN    ELEMENT    IN    EXPANSION 

country  practically  opens  its  doors  to  the  African  race. 
Even  West  Point  must  give  an  officer's  commission  to 
the  black  boy  who  passes  her  examinations.  The  first 
negro  who  graduated  at  West  Point  was  subsequently 
expelled  from  the  army  for  stealing  money  of  the  sol- 
diers. One  or  two  have  graduated  since,  but  their 
career  of  usefulness  is  circumscribed,  not  because  the 
Government  desires  to  discourage  them,  but  for  the 
more  potent  reason  that  no  soldier  will  follow  them 
into  battle,  or  treat  them  as  superiors.  In  no  part  of 
the  world  where  the  negro  has  been  colonized,  does  he 
show  so  high  a  degree  of  domesticity  and  capacity  for 
civilization  as  in  the  United  States,  where  for  three 
hundred  years  he  has  been  in  daily  contact  with  a  high 
type  of  white  manhood.  From  the  very  outset  he 
adopted  the  white  man's  dress,  language,  and  religion. 
So  long  as  the  white  man  asserted  his  ascendancy, 
lived  on  his  plantation,  and  looked  after  his  negroes, 
they  gave  him  not  merely  their  labor,  but  the  tribute 
of  a  loyalty  touching  in  its  childish  completeness.  The 
negro  adopted  not  merely  the  name  of  his  master,  but 
assumed  among  his  fellows  the  relative  rank  which 
that  master  held  among  neighboring  planters.  Tlio 
keynote  to  the  negro's  character  is  his  inherited  tribal 
instinct.  lie  does  not  care  for  political  institutions  in 
general — his  whole  being  yearns  for  a  chief,  a  leader,  a 
master.  It  was  my  fortune  shortly  after  the  Civil  War 
to  visit  some  relatives  who  ow  irmI  large  plantations  in 
Maryland.  As  I  had  been  brought  up  in  New  I'.ng- 
land,  I  assumed,  of  conrsc.  that  when  the  slaves  were 
cmancipalcil  llic\  would  all  |iroiii|itl\'  run  a\va\'  to  llic 
North,  or,  il  llicy  standi,  wciild  b.iiid  toiM'tluT  in  iios- 

1  "7  J 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  NATIONS 

tile  league  against  their  old  masters.  But  my  young 
preconceptions  were  violently  jarred  when  in  this 
northernmost  of  the  slave  States  I  discovered  that  the 
negroes  not  only  had  not  run  away,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, did  not  appreciate  the  political  rights  that  had 
been  so  suddenly  thrust  upon  them. 

When  news  of  President  Lincoln's  proclamation 
arrived,  my  kinsman,  v^'ho  was  an  arch  "  rebel,"  went 
out  to  his  negro  cabins  and  announced  the  fact  to  his 
blacks.  "  Now,  boys — you're  all  free — go  along — I 
don't  want  you  any  more — get  out!  " 

But  they  laughed  in  his  face — they  knew  him  for  a 
man  of  wit  and  humor.  They  thought  this  another 
of  his  jokes. 

Not  only  did  they  not  leave,  but  to  this  day  they  or 
their  descendants  are  on  the  place,  and  cannot  yet 
understand  why  so  much  blood  and  treasure  should 
have  been  wasted  down  South  to  upset  things  that 
needed  only  a  little  modifying  to  make  them  satisfac- 
tory. 

What  I  found  among  the  plantations  of  Maryland, 
I  also  found  further  south  in  every  State  from  Virginia 
to  Texas — the  same  black  man  holding  for  his  master 
the  same  feudal  feeling  that  characterizes  the  Kaffir  of 
South  Africa. 

This  feeling  makes  the  negro  one  of  the  best  of  sol- 
diers, at  least  in  the  opinion  of  his  white  officers.  Dur- 
ing the  Spanish  War  there  was  but  one  voice  in  the 
matter,  the  voice  of  praise  for  the  black  man  as  a  sol- 
dier in  the  ranks.  He  needs  the  constant  example  and 
leadership  of  the  white  officer,  but  under  him  he  will 
do  anything  that  can  be  reasonably  demanded.     In 

[  98] 


NEGRO  AN  ELEMENT  IN  EXPANSION 

the  butchery  that  marked  the  progress  up  San  Juan 
Hill  the  negro  regiments  under  West  Point  captains 
showed  steadiness  and  courage.  Since  that  war  the 
papers  have  been  so  busy  with  the  praises  of  "  polit- 
ical "  war  heroes,  that  the  Regulars  have  been  ignored. 
Indeed,  though  the  war  is  now  two  years  ended,  I  can 
scarcely  recall  the  mention  of  any  West  Point  gradu- 
ates— they  are  buried  under  a  mass  of  politicians  and 
newspaper  correspondents. 

The  negro  makes  a  good  soldier  because  he  possesses 
the  cardinal  virtue  of  the  private  in  the  ranks — loyalty 
to  the  person  of  his  chief.  The  negro  soldier  cares  not 
a  snap  for  the  red  tape  of  the  War  Office — the  captain 
is  his  code.  If  he  does  wrong,  he  would  rather  take 
a  flogging  from  his  captain  than  have  a  court-martial 
and  be  acquitted.  When  the  captain  is  on  furlough, 
the  negro  company  is  Uke  a  family  without  a  head.  I 
have  a  friend  who  left  his  black  regiment  in  Texas  and 
came  to  New  York  on  furlough  to  visit  his  family. 
Not  many  days  after  his  arrival,  there  appeared  at  his 
door  one  of  his  troop,  who  announced  that  he  had 
come  to  stay,  "  He  belonged  to  Massa  John's  troop!  " 

That  was  quite  enough  in  his  eyes — and  that  of  the 
family.  This  black  trooper  stayed  there,  made  him- 
self useful  ill  the  kitchen,  bragged  in  the  servants'  hall 
about  the  bravery  of  his  chief,  and,  when  the  captain's 
leave  was  up,  the  black  man  also  went  away. 

The  moving  forces  of  this  world  cannot  be  put  into 
the  scales  and  weighed.  Great  wars  have  been  waged 
under  the  inspiration  of  emotions  without  any  more 
fdiiiKJation  tliMii  fairy  stories.  Loyalty,  respect  for 
parents,  patriotism,  religion — these  are  the  forces  that 

I  ')')   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

move  the  world,  not  factory-wheels  and  banking  con- 
cerns. The  negro  is  a  mighty  force,  and  he  can  be  led 
by  a  thread  in  the  hands  of  the  man  that  knows  him. 
To-day  this  force  is  wasted  to  a  large  extent;  the 
negro  is  thrown  out  into  the  street;  his  leaders  have 
abandoned  him;  he  is  in  America  exposed  to  the  ca- 
pricious discipline  of  the  white  mob.''' 

What  I  have  said  of  the  negro  as  an  American  sol- 
dier is  no  less  true  of  him  in  the  British  army.  In  the 
West  Indies,  British  Guiana,  and  South  Africa,  I  have 
seen  excellent  negro  troops,  and  the  British  officers  in 
command  have  spoken  to  me  of  their  men  with  the 
same  affection  as  have  West  Pointers.  It  is  under 
discipline  that  the  negro  shows  to  the  best  advantage 
— discipline  of  a  great  plantation,  of  a  vast  summer 
hotel,  of  a  railway  sleeping-car  service,  but  chief  of 
all,  the  army;  for  military  discipline  suits  the  negro  to 
an  exceptional  extent.  He  loves  the  pomp  and  cir- 
cumstance of  it;  the  solemn  parade,  the  music,  the 
swagger,  and  the  serving  of  a  chief. 

In  South  Africa  black  troops  were  not  used  to  any 
large  extent  by  the  British,  unless  for  mounted  police 
work.  But  those  that  I  did  see  in  Natal  and  among 
the  Basuto,  were  on  a  par  with  the  best  of  the  United 
States  or  the  West  Indies.  The  English  officers  spoke 
of  them  in  the  same  affectionate  manner,  and  for  the 
same  reasons. 

While  I  was  at  Maseru  polo  was  in  progress,  and, 
as  there  happened  to  be  vacancies  among  the  white 
officers,  black  troopers  were  called  upon  to  fill  their 

*  In  1899  there  were  eighty-four  negro  lynchings  recorded.  For 
many  years  lynchings  in  the  United  States  have  averaged  between  one 
and  two  hundred  annually,  the  large  majority  being  negroes. 

[    100   ] 


NEGRO   AN   ELEMENT    IN   EXPANSION 

places,  that  the  play  might  not  be  spoiled.  These  were 
men  born  in  savagery,  bred  up  to  steal  and  murder — 
who  had  never  worn  more  dress  than  a  snuff  spoon 
through  the  ear  up  to  the  time  of  England's  taking 
charge  of  them.  And  yet  here  they  were  in  the  rough 
and  tumble  of  a  polo  game,  playing  with  their  con- 
querors as  children  with  their  parents,  at  least  on  the 
field  of  sport. 

The  negroes  of  Basutoland  felt  proud  when  allowed 
to  play  with  the  white  chiefs.  It  was  beautiful  to  watch 
the  glow  of  pride  on  the  faces  of  these  natives  when 
called  upon  in  a  manner  so  flattering  to  their 
vanity. 

In  my  journey  through  Basutoland  the  British  Gov- 
ernor gave  me  as  guide,  protector,  interpreter,  and 
escort,  a  member  of  his  military  force,  who  wore  the 
British  uniform  and  cocked  his  forage  cap  over  his 
ear  in  a  manner  quite  as  "  knowing  "  as  Tommy  At- 
kins in  Hyde  Park.  We  went  to  Taba  Basio  to  see 
Masupa,  the  son  of  Moshesh,  who  in  his  day  was  the 
most  powerful  chief  in  South  Africa. 

Our  escort  was  of  the  family  of  Moshesh  and  re- 
ceived semi-royal  honors  from  the  natives  whom  we 
met  on  the  way.  But  the  honors  he  paid  to  his  own 
native  King  were  scant  compared  to  those  which  he 
delighted  in  offering  to  the  white  man.  His  black 
majesty,  King  Masuj^a,  was  slightly  drunk  when  I  had 
the  honor  of  a  presentation  to  him.  He  was  sur- 
rounded by  his  warriors,  and  talked  very  freely  of  the 
pleasure  he  would  have  in  fighting  against  the  I'ocrs! 
Cheap  talk  this!  for  tlic  Boers  had  thrashed  the  Basuto 
on  many  occasions,  and  all  the  power  these  blacks  now 
[   lo'   J 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

have  is  what  is  loaned  to  them  by  British  prestige. 
When  Masupa  was  told  that  I  wished  to  carry  away 
a  picture  of  him,  he  leaped  up,  ran  to  his  hut,  and  dis- 
appeared. I  thought  this  very  strange.  Perhaps  he 
was  angry — perhaps  he  was  preparing  an  ambush  for 
me!  Thinking  it  well  to  be  certain  on  such  a  point,  I 
followed  and  found  him  rummaging  in  a  big  chest 
among  a  lot  of  cast-off  clothing.  There  were  coats 
that  had  been  discarded  by  ship's  stewards,  consuls,  or 
British  generals;  it  mattered  little  to  Masupa,  so  long 
as  some  brass  buttons  or  bits  of  gold  lace  were  left. 
His  chiefs  held  up  first  one  coat  and  then  another. 
Finally  he  settled  upon  one  that  might  have  been  worn 
by  a  Portuguese  Admiral — the  cloth  could  hardly  be 
seen  for  the  amount  of  faded  gold  lace  upon  it.  First, 
however,  he  put  on  a  shabby  red  flannel  shirt  to  which 
he  sought  to  add  a  paper  collar.  The  studs  bothered 
him  very  much — they  were  even  more  troublesome 
to  his  suite.  One  chief  after  another  tried  his  fingers 
at  these  strange  and  elusive  articles — but  the  result 
was  torture  to  the  King.  The  room  had  only  the  light 
from  a  small  door,  and  was  nearly  dark.  The  small 
space  was  crowded  with  very  greasy,  naked  chiefs  who 
tried  their  hands  and  fingers  ineffectually  at  getting 
the  collar  properly  adjusted  to  the  neck  of  their  King. 
They  pinched  his  skin  until  it  bled.  The  chief  never 
flinched.  His  Royal  honor  was  at  stake.  They  tore 
collar  after  collar,  and  the  day  was  drawing  to  its 
close.  At  last,  after  much  grunting,  royalty  issued 
from  that  dirty  hovel — every  inch  a  king,  as  African 
kings  go,  dressed  in  the  cast-off  clothing  of  Europeans, 
with  a  stovepipe  hat  on  his  head,  and  in  his  right  hand 
[  102  ] 


NEGRO   AN   ELEMENT   IN   EXPANSION 

the  emblem  of  his  savagery,  the  Kaffir  knob-kirrie  or 
war  club. 

That  is  an  epitome  of  the  African  when  left  to  his 
own  devices.  There  was  the  King,  and  at  my  side  was 
the  black  private  in  a  British  cavalry  troop.  That  pri- 
vate was  the  superior  of  his  King  in  every  essential. 
Masupa  is  allowed  to  reign  because  for  the  moment 
he  has  his  uses! 

And  here  we  have  a  lesson  in  colonial  administra- 
tion. Basutoland,  containing  fighting  negroes  which 
are  acknowledged  as  the  best  in  Africa — some  250,000 
in  number — is  governed  by  a  half  dozen  Englishmen 
who  have  not  even  a  body-guard  of  white  troops  to  pro- 
tect them  in  case  of  a  riot. 

This  country  is  far  away  from  railways  and  news- 
papers; at  the  time  of  my  visit  there  were  no  British 
garrisons  within  hundreds  of  miles;  the  Governor  and 
his  wife  were  completely  isolated;  yet  they  assured 
me  they  felt  themselves  as  secure,  day  and  night,  as 
though  in  lodgings  on  Piccadilly. 

The  Basuto  honor  Sir  Godfrey  Lagden  because  in 
their  eyes  he  repjesents  justice,  courage,  and  the  great 
far-away  white  Queen  whom  their  imagination  endows 
with  supernatural  powers.  If  a  Basuto  chief  misbe- 
haves, the  while  Governor  has  no  need  to  bring  in 
white  soldiers  for  the  sake  of  punishing  the  offender. 
It  is  enough  for  him  to  call  a  council  of  chiefs  to  lay 
the  matter  before  them.  By  tact  he  secures  their  sup- 
port, and  Ihcy  help  him  to  punish  the  malefactor  in  a 
manner  which  I  he  nrilivcs  themselves  recognize  as 
suitable. 

No  one  dreams,  in  Bnsnloland,  of  a  general  mas- 
I    '"..   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

sacre  of  whites  by  blacks — least  of  all  of  a  massacre  of 
English.  Nor  have  the  American  negroes  shown  a  dis- 
position, even  in  their  days  of  slavery,  to  rise  and 
attack  the  whites.  They  have  been  often  sorely  pro- 
voked, and  now  and  then  there  has  been  rioting,  but 
in  general,  wherever  negroes  have  shown  hostility  to 
white  man's  rule  it  has  sprung  from  good  reasons — 
usually  cruelty  linked  with  incapacity. 

Another  black  king  whom  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
knowing  was  Ja  Ja,  who  had  been  transferred  from  the 
African  West  Coast  to  St.  Vincent  in  the  West  Indies 
in  punishment  for  some  raiding  he  had  done  in  his 
native  country.  Ja  Ja  had  his  wife  with  him,  and  lived 
in  a  very  comfortable  bungalow  looking  out  over  the 
Caribbean  Sea.  He  had  a  negro  servant  to  wait  on 
him,  and  the  British  Government  allowed  him  a  hand- 
some salary.  He  lived  in  comfort  far  surpassing  that 
of  his  royal  cousin  Masupa.  Ja  Ja  told  me  his  tale — 
assured  me  of  his  innocence — and  begged  me  to  in- 
tercede with  the  United  States  Government  to  have 
him  reinstated  in  Africa.  His  intellectual  calibre  was 
that  of  the  average  sleeping-car  porter,  and  it  was  hard 
to  determine  which  was  the  more  grotesque,  his  play- 
ing the  king  in  Africa  or  his  royal  pretensions  in  St. 
Vincent. 

I  cannot  claim  large  acquaintance  with  African  roy- 
alty. Masupa  and  Ja  Ja,  and  a  few  Swazi  and  Malo- 
boks  whom  I  met  casually,  close  my  list.  These  few 
were  all  good  specimens  of  physical  manhood — the 
best  of  the  blacks.  What  can  we,  in  all  fairness,  predi- 
cate of  a  race  among  whom  these  are  types  of  leader- 
ship? We  keep  repeating  to  ourselves  that  the  black 
[  104  ] 


NEGRO   AN    ELEMENT    IN    EXPANSION 

man  is  equal  to  the  white — that  he  only  lacks  oppor- 
tunity— that  he  has  not  yet  had  time  to  develop,  etc. 
But  is  it  fair  to  ask,  "  How  much  time  must  we  give 
him?    What  opportunities  does  he  yet  lack?  " 

My  experience  is  probably  that  of  most  Americans. 
At  the  school  where  I  fitted  for  college  (the  Academy 
of  Norwich,  Conn.)  there  was  a  negro  girl  in  the  same 
class.  She  dressed  as  well  as  the  others,  and  received 
the  same  attention  from  the  teachers.  I  never  heard 
of  any  slight  put  upon  her;  on  the  contrary,  she  was 
an  object  of  great  interest  to  all  the  town,  for  the  pub- 
lic sentiment  of  the  place  was  strongly  in  favor  of  prov- 
ing the  superior  capacity  of  the  negro.  At  Yale  Uni- 
versity was  also  a  negro  student  in  my  year,  I  could 
discover  no  forces  at  work  calculated  to  discourage 
him  from  aspiring  to  the  highest  professional  positions 
at  the  bar  or  in  literature,  in  the  pulpit  or  any  other 
of  the  liberal  walks  of  life.  On  the  contrary,  if  a  negro 
happened  to  rise  a  small  bit  above  the  common  level, 
there  was  a  disposition  to  make  much  of  him,  to  show 
him  ofT  as  proof  of  what  the  race  could  do. 

We  have  a  knowledge  of  the  African  as  far  back 
as  we  have  a  knowledge  of  any  human  race,  and  from 
the  earliest  historical  times  to  this  day,  from  Herodotus 
to  Uncle  Remus,  wc  find  the  same  helpless  darky — the 
delight  of  children,  inconsequent,  shiftless,  melodious, 
loyal,  fond  of  color,  delighting  in  sunshine,  and  shy  of 
consecutive  labor. 

N(jrtlicrn  educators  who  liave  lionostly  striven  to 
sec  the  best  of  the  negro,  and  professors  at  colleges,  in- 
cluding West  I'oint,  have  assured  nie  that  the  capacity 
of  the  negro  f(jr  intenectiial  work  is  very  liniiteil;  that 
I    '<'5   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

they  proceed  rapidly  in  the  early  stages,  when  memory, 
or  rather  mimicry,  counts  for  much.  They  frequently 
surpass  white  children  of  the  same  age  in  languages. 
But  soon  they  commence  to  hesitate  in  their  progress; 
their  minds  become  clouded;  mathematical  reasoning 
stops  them;  the  white  children  then  gain  rapidly,  and, 
by  the  age  of  seventeen,  the  negro  is  left  hopelessly 
behind. 

No  one  doubts  that  negroes  can  make  a  passable 
show  as  preachers,  law^yers,  doctors,  editors,  poets,  and 
such.  Judging  by  the  feeble  showing  of  some  of  our 
white  acquaintances  in  these  professions,  we  almost  feel 
inclined  to  reach  a  helping  hand  to  the  arboreal  por- 
tion of  the  animal  kingdom.  But  when  the  black  man 
has  done  his  best  in  the  intellectual  walks  of  life,  he  has 
after  all  only  reached  the  level  of  an  inferior  white  man. 

Darwinism  is  the  fashion  of  the  day,  but  it  does  not 
show  us  that  in  the  last  10,000  years  the  black  man 
or  the  white  has  changed  one  iota  of  his  physical  or 
intellectual  capacity.  Nations  have  come  fonvard; 
others  have  declined,  according  to  laws  connected 
with  morals  and  political  economy;  but  the  highest 
type  of  our  day,  and  the  highest  type  of  any  previous 
generation,  do  not  differ  sufficiently  for  us  to  draw  the 
conclusion  that  mankind  has  varied  more  than  is  in- 
volved in  one  man  having  the  use  of  a  telephone  and 
a  hundred-ton  gun,  against  the  other  who  had  but  a 
javelin  and  a  canoe  paddle.  This  view  may  be  wrong, 
but  it  is  at  least  founded  on  better  legal  evidence  than 
the  one  that  accuses  my  ancestor  of  being  an  ape. 

Spain  has  solved  much  of  her  negro  question  by  in- 
termarriage with  Africans.  The  Frenchman  in  Mar- 
[   106  ] 


NEGRO   AN   ELEMENT   IN   EXPANSION 

tinique  and  Guadeltipe  has  also  produced  a  bountiful 
bastard  breed.  The  Anglo-Saxon  and  the  Boer  of 
South  Africa  are  the  only  peoples  that  have  kept  their 
blood  untainted — and  this  is  one  secret  of  their  power 
over  native  races. 

In  Cuba  we  have  accepted  responsibility  for  more 
negroes,  in  addition  to  the  ten  million  or  so  in  our  own 
country,  and  the  world  is  interested  to  see  with  what 
success  we  shall  meet  this  new  burden. 

Our  first  duty  is  to  recognize  the  truth,  that  the 
negro  is  not  the  equal  of  the  white  man. 

Our  former  slave  States  have  been  compelled  by 
military  force  to  subscribe  to  a  monstrous  lie  as  the 
price  of  political  existence;  and  the  result  has  been 
that  in  more  than  one  of  our  black  States  the  law  is 
nullified,  and  young  men  are  demoralized  by  seeing 
the  law  daily  set  aside  by  respectable  white  people. 
Such  action  is  full  of  danger  for  the  future.  It  needs 
scant  knowledge  to  point  out  that  the  generation 
which  treats  with  contempt  one  law,  may,  in  the  next 
generation,  be  satisfied  with  no  law  at  all.  A  republic 
that  has  not  respect  for  the  law  is  in  danger;  for  there 
is  nothing  between  us  and  the  mob  if  we  have  shaken 
the  general  confidence  in  legal  remedies. 

It  is  therefore  our  duty  to  revise  the  laws  which  de- 
termine the  present  status  of  the  negro.  This  coun- 
try was  founded  as  a  white  man's  country — not  merely 
Illinois  and  New  York,  but  Louisiana  and  Missouri  as 
well.  It  is  our  duly  to  regard  the  negro  not  merely 
from  the  stand-jxjint  of "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  but  frcnn 
a  broad  study  of  liiin  in  the  past  four  hinidrcd  years — 
in  Africa,  in  llic  VVesI  liidics.  and  in  the  United  Stales. 
I    '"7   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

We  need  legislation  that  will  obviate  much  of  the 
brutality  and  the  lynching  that  now  disgrace  certain 
sections  of  our  country.  We  have  not  been  successful 
in  the  governing  of  inferior  races,  because  we  have 
pretended  that  they  were  our  equals.  It  will  appear 
from  an  impartial  study  of  the  subject  that  the  negroes 
of  this  country  are,  in  part,  reverting  to  their  original 
savage  state — to  devil  worship.  This  has  taken  place 
in  Hayti,  and  other  parts  of  the  West  Indies,  and  shows 
us  that  the  negro  takes  on  the  outward  forms  of  the 
white  man's  religion  for  so  long  as  the  influence  of 
the  dominating  race  is  upon  him:  but  as  soon  as  that 
support  is  withdrawn  he  lapses  back  to  the  more  con- 
genial rites  of  his  ancestors. 

Livingstone,  the  great  missionary,  tells  us  that  in 
descending  the  Zambesi  he  came  upon  negro  kraals 
in  regions  that  had  been  occupied  by  Portuguese  mis- 
sionaries two  or  three  centuries  previously.  These 
blacks  could  make  the  sign  of  the  cross;  and  that  was 
all  that  remained  of  the  mission  work.  With  the  de- 
parture of  the  white  priest,  the  white  man's  religion 
had  gone  also,  and  to-day  the  Kaffirs  of  that  neighbor- 
hood are  as  savage  in  their  rites  as  any  others.  At 
least,  so  I  have  been  assured  by  Dr.  Carl  Peters,  who 
was  recently  there. 

Our  law  should  recognize  the  negroes  as  minors,  as 
wards  of  the  nation.  No  negro  should  be  allowed  to 
mortgage  his  property  or  to  contract  debt  beyond  a 
very  small  amount.  Every  opportunity  should  be 
open  to  him  for  education,  but  the  franchise  should 
not  be  granted  to  him,  or  anyone  else,  unless  he  can 
prove  a  certain  amount  of  property.  Indeed  it  is  hard 
[  io8  ] 


NEGRO   AN   ELEMENT   IN   EXPANSION 

for  me  to  understand  the  justice  of  permitting  the  man 
who  has  nothing,  to  vote  away  the  earnings  of  the 
man  who  has.  I  should  as  soon  invite  the  longshore- 
men to  elect  our  naval  officers;  or  select  the  presidents 
of  our  colleges  from  unsuccessful  Freshmen.  The 
business  of  government  is  very  largely  that  of  raising 
money  by  taxation  and  spending  it  for  the  good  of  the 
community.  The  man  who  has  earned  money  is  more 
likely  to  spend  it  wisely  than  the  tramp,  or  the  man 
who  does  not  care  to  work  for  the  future. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  wish  a  re-establishment  of 
slavery  to  its  former  extent.  But  to-day  the  so-called 
free  African  is  no  less  a  slave  than  he  was  fifty  years 
ago.  He  is  a  slave  to  the  weaknesses  that  make  him 
at  present  the  lowest  thing  in  the  scale  of  American 
citizenship.  He  does  not  now  fear  the  flogging  of  the 
overseer,  but  he  is  the  slave  of  the  money-lender;  the 
slave  of  the  corner  grocer;  the  slave  of  the  man  who 
advances  him  whiskey  and  gives  him  long  credit.  The 
Shylock  fraternity  has  swarmed  down  over  the  South 
since  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  and  exploited  the  small 
negro  proprietor  much  as  it  has  the  peasantry  of  Rus- 
sia, Roumania,  and  Hungary.  Their  methods  are  the 
same  the  world  over — they  first  open  a  shop  where 
they  supply  groceries  and  whiskey  at  lower  rates  than 
any  honest  competitor  can  afford.  Then  they  coax 
the  negroes  to  postpone  the  day  of  settlement,  an  easy 
matter  among  a  race  of  big  children.  Then  they  sell 
them  various  other  things — anything,  in  fact,  from  a 
sham  diamond  ring  to  a  mule — always  assuring  the 
crcduknis  blacks  that  they  may  pay  at  any  time. 

'Ihen  conies  a  bad  croj) — a  sudden  scarcity  of  money 
I    ""'  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

— a  fall  in  values — a  time  when  the  negro  is  in  particu- 
lar distress.  Then  is  the  opportunity  for  which  Shy- 
lock  has  long  been  waiting.  He  presents  his  little  bill! 
The  happy-go-lucky,  shiftless  black  man,  of  course 
cannot  pay  it,  and  finds  himself  facing  bankruptcy. 
Shylock  draws  a  long  face  and  says  he  must  have 
money  at  once — or  be  ruined;  and  the  upshot  is  that 
the  negro  deeds  over  all  his  little  property  to  his  friend 
the  money-lender  and  takes  in  return  a  mortgage,  in 
which  he  promises  to  pay  annually  a  large  amount  of 
money.  In  order  to  make  that  sure  he  promises  his 
usurious  friend  that  he  will  never  buy  his  supplies  from 
any  other  place,  and,  moreover,  that  all  the  cotton  or 
tobacco  he  may  raise  in  the  year  shall  be  sent  to  him, 
and  only  to  him,  to  be  sold  on  commission!  Thus, 
under  legal  forms,  the  money-lender  of  another  race 
""  enters,  takes  the  place  of  the  white  planter,  and  puts 
upon  the  black  man  a  slavery  as  complete  as  was  ever 
devised  in  the  days  of  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin." 


[  no  ] 


IX 

OFFICIAL    GERMAN   COLONIZATION 

**  Great  Britain  may  therefore  be,  not  inaptly,  described  as  a 
fortified  outpost  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Race,  overlooking  the  Eastern 
Continent  and  resting  upon  America.^'' — B  rook;  Adams,  "  Amer- 
ica^ s  Economic  Supremacy,^''  igoo. 

The  German  in  Kiao  Chow — German  East  Africa — West  Indies 
and  United  States 

UP  to  the  moment  of  writing,  Germany  has  sent 
out  into  the  world  more  colonists  than  any- 
other  country  save  Great  Britain.  The  notable 
feature  of  this  movement,  however,  is  that  the  Ger- 
man, as  a  colonist,  prefers  almost  any  flag  to  his  own. 
This  is  not  because  the  German  does  not  love  his 
Emperor,  his  language,  his  customs,  and  the  thousand 
little  things  that  constitute  the  Fatherland.  It  is  not 
wholly  true  that  he  expatriates  himself  in  order  to  es- 
cape military  service,  for  that  service  is  not  more  un- 
popular than  most  other  personal  taxes.  But  the  Ger- 
man loves  liberty,  and  he  realizes  that,  in  colonies  at 
least,  liberty  is  essential  to  progress.  The  German 
Government  hampers  colonial  enterprise  by  a  mul- 
tiplicity of  of^cial  limitations  which  weigh  upon  the 
pioneer  mcrcliani  or  planter,  and  that  is  why,  in  spite 
of  more  than  a  million  sfjuarc  miles  of  colonial  posses- 

I      'M      I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

sions,  the  children  of  the  German  Empire  persist  in 
founding  their  new  homes  not  in  Kiao  Chow  or  Kame- 
roons,  but  in  Australia,  Argentine,  Sumatra,  Canada, 
and  Texas. 

In  1898,  on  a  North  German  Lloyd  steamer  bound 
for  the  China  seas,  were  seventeen  German  merchants. 
Kiao  Chow  had  then  been  one  year  under  the  German 
flag,  and  German  papers  which  reflect  Government 
opinion  had  laid  so  much  stress  upon  the  commercial 
nature  of  that  colony,  that  a  stranger  might  have 
thought  it  fair  to  assume  that  some,  at  least,  of  these 
seventeen  merchants  were  bound  for  this  incipient 
Hamburg  of  Shantung. 

Two  of  them  did  go  there  to  look  about,  but  they 
were  so  discouraged  by  the  attitude  of  the  of^cials  that 
they  returned  home.  The  rest  found  more  comfort 
under  the  Dutch  or  the  British  flag.  A  wealthy  Ger- 
man planter  who  had  large  plantations  in  Sumatra  got 
ofif  at  Singapore.  I  took  him  one  day  greatly  to  task 
for  not  assisting  in  the  development  of  German  East 
Africa  instead  of  bringing  his  capital  and  intelligence 
to  the  advancement  of  a  rival  colony.  Said  my  German 
friend: 

"  I  did  try  to  settle  in  German  East  Africa.  But  I 
was  not  made  welcome.  I  was  choked  by  red  tape. 
I  was  not  regarded  as  an  intelligent  member  of  the 
community,  but  as  one  who  was  to  be  ordered  about 
by  ofTficials — as  though  I  were  a  peasant  recruit. 

"  No!  it  is  impossible  yet  to  do  anything  in  a  Ger- 
man colony — there  is  too  much  government.  Instead 
of  getting  the  best  man  and  paying  him  a  high  salary, 
they  pay  a  dozen  men  shabbily,  and  get  but  the  com- 
[  112  ] 


OFFICIAL   GERMAN   COLONIZATION 

mon  run  of  officials,  and  jou  can't  ask  for  anything 
worse  than  that,  at  least  in  the  tropics.  Why!  the 
German  Government  does  not  pay  the  governor  of  a 
colony  as  much  as  I  pay  an  overseer!  My  manager 
would  not  change  places  with  the  Governor  of  East 
Africa !  " 

This  gentleman  is  well  known  in  BerHn  as  a  wealthy 
and  public-spirited  Christian.  He  echoes  the  senti- 
ments of  many  Germans  competent  to  express  an 
opinion  in  such  a  matter. 

Among  my  fellow-passengers  were  several  going  to 
Hong-Kong.  When  I  twitted  one  of  them  for  not 
going  to  Kiao  Chow,  I  got  practically  the  same  answer. 
Said  one,  "  Why  should  I  go  to  Kiao  Chow?  I  have 
more  political  and  personal  liberty  in  Hong-Kong 
under  the  British  flag  than  under  my  own.  In  Hong- 
Kong  I  am  somebody — in  Kiao  Chow  I  am  but  a 
'  common  civilian.'  In  Hong-Kong  German  inter- 
ests are  respected,  and  Germans  have  a  voice.  In  the 
directory  of  the  Hong-Kong  and  Shanghai  Bank,  Ger- 
mans are  represented  as  well  as  English.  No,  sir,  I 
love  my  country,  but  my  patriotism  is  not  strong 
enough  to  carry  me  to  Kiao  Chow." 

Of  course,  therefore,  I  visited  Kiao  Chow;  for  I 
wished  to  see  on  the  spot  whether  my  German  friends 
of  the  North  German  Lloyd  had  been  exaggerating. 

My  reception  on  the  part  of  the  Governor  and  offi- 
cials generally  was  cordial,  and  everything  was  done 
to  make  my  stay  agreeable.  I  lay  stress  upon  this,  for 
one's  views  are  frequently  modified  by  personal  trifles. 

To  be  sure,  being  merely  a  civilian.  I  was  not  per- 
mitted to  enter  the  Govcrnoi's  paiai'i'  b\   [\\c  main  en- 

I   ".H 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

trance;  but  was,  by  the  sentinel,  sent  around  to  the 
side  door.  At  the  time  I  did  not  know  that  any  in- 
vidious distinction  was  being  made,  and  so  I  had  noth- 
ing to  worry  about.  The  Governor  invited  me  to  his 
table,  and  his  official  aides  asked  me  to  dine  at  their 
mess.  No  governor  was  ever  more  painstaking  or  con- 
scientious than  this  particular  one.  By  this  time  he 
has  probably  died  of  the  fever  or  been  replaced;  for  in 
1898  the  colony  was  so  unhealthy  that  I  could  scarce 
hear  of  anyone  who  had  not  suffered  from  dysentery  or 
malarial  fever,  or  both.  This  governor  was  much  wor- 
ried over  many  things — the  walls  of  his  palace  were 
green  with  mould,  the  furniture  which  he  had  brought 
out  at  great  cost  from  Berlin  was  ungumming  itself 
under  the  influence  of  moisture;  he  was  a  physical 
wreck  by  reason  of  the  unsanitary  state  of  his  quarters, 
and,  while  shivering  with  the  damp,  he. pictured  in 
glowing  colors  Kiao  Chow  as  the  great  future  sana- 
torium of  the  Far  East!  I  did  not  smile — it  was  too 
pathetic! 

Then  he  poured  into  my  ears  some  of  his  cares  of 
state.  I  had  hoped  to  hear  him  discourse  on  the  prob- 
lems arising  from  adapting  European  legal  methods 
to  Chinese  needs;  possibly  to  frontier  disputes,  cus- 
tom-house difficulties,  military  capacity  of  the  Celes- 
tials, a  hundred  problems  of  absorbing  interest  to  one 
in  his  position,  fresh  from  the  atmosphere  of  Berlin 
or  Kiel! 

But  no;  his  official  mind  was  occupied  by  considera- 
tion of  how  to  punish  a  Chinese  scullery-boy  who  had 
inadvertently  washed  the  dishes  in  the  bath-tub.  I 
told  the  Governor  that  in  China  there  were  so  many 
[  114  ] 


OFFICIAL   GERMAN   COLONIZATION 

worse  ways  of  cleaning  dishes  that  I  would  leave  the 
matter  to  a  local  court,  and  think  no  more  about  it. 
He  was  shocked  at  my  superficiality. 

And  just  here  let  me  point  out  the  difference  be- 
tween the  official  and  the  normal  mind. 

To  the  official  mind,  perspective  or  relative  im- 
portance does  not  exist.  For  him  every  telegram 
takes  its  turn,  whether  it  refers  to  a  ship  sinking  in 
sight  of  port,  or  an  accumulation  of  ashes  in  the  dust- 
bin. My  friend,  the  Governor,  worried  more  over  that 
scullery  episode  than  Moltke  over  the  capture  of  Louis 
Napoleon. 

On  the  occasion  of  my  visit  to  Kiao  Chow  I  found 
five  merchants  as  against  1,500  soldiers  or  officials. 
This  to  me  was  depressing.  I  should  have  preferred 
five  soldiers  and  1,500  colonists.  But  the  Governor 
thought  otherwise.  He  could  not  understand  what 
these  merchants  meant  by  bothering  him  with  ques- 
tions about  the  place.  He  did  not  want  them,  they 
only  added  to  his  worries.  On  the  occasion  of  my 
visit  the  Government  had  announced  the  first  sale  of 
land  to  take  place  in  a  few  days,  and  German  merchants 
in  other  ports  of  China  had  shown  considerable  patri- 
otic desire  to  invest  money  for  the  benefit  of  the  colony. 
But  few  knew  anything  about  the  place.  All  were 
curious  to  know  if  there  were  such  a  thing  as  a  hotel, 
whether  they  might  sleep  on  board  a  shij)  in  port, 
whether  there  would  be  tents  procurable.  Nothing 
seemed  to  mc  more  reasonable  than  that.  Throughout 
the  civilized  world,  when  one  iii.iii  invites  anolhor  to 
come  to  an  inaccessible  region  and  purchase  from  him 
— vvlu't lu-r  horses  nr  land      the  law  of  hospitnlily.  if  not 

I    "S   1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

good  policy,  demands  that  no  pains  should  be  spared 
in  entertaining  the  prospective  purchaser. 

In  Kiao  Chow,  however,  this  law  was  reversed,  per- 
haps in  deference  to  Chinese  topsy-turvy  principles. 
This  governor  resented  what  he  was  pleased  to  regard 
as  the  insolence  of  German  merchants,  who,  just  think 
of  it !  had  the  audacity  to  imagine  that  he,  an  imperial 
official,  should  waste  his  time  in  looking  after  such  a 
thing  as  commerce!  Nobody  wanted  these  merchants 
any  way;  they  only  made  trouble! 

And  this  was  the  beginning  of  Germany's  first 
colony. 

The  best  sites  have  been  secured  for  barracks,  the 
officers  have  installed  themselves  as  in  a  military  can- 
tonment, and  if  by  chance  a  misguided  merchant 
should  venture  to  settle  in  the  place,  he  is  regarded  as 
an  intruder — is  not  even  admitted  as  a  member  of  the 
social  organizations  patronized  by  the  military  aristoc- 
racy.* 

There  was  one  exception  at  Kiao  Chow.  One  mer- 
chant did  belong  to  the  club — but,  as  has  probably 

♦From  a  letter  dated  Kiao  Chow,  October  ii,  1898,  I  extract  these 
words,  prefacing  that  the  writer  is  eminently  trustworthy  : 

"The  German  Government  has  purchased  at  a  low  rate  all  the  land 
in  this  vicinity,  so  that  all  buyers  must  secure  their  lots  directly  from  the 
government. 

"  The  government  therefore  has  a  complete  monopoly  and  withholds  or 
sells  as  may  seem  most  advantageous. 

"  The  first  sale  took  place  on  Monday,  October  3,  1898,  as  per  pro- 
gramme There  were  about  forty  bidders  present,  all  of  whom,  with  one 
exception  (a  Swede),  were  Germans. 

"  Outside  of  this  number  were  also  eight  or  ten  Chinese  merchants. 

"  Blocks  of  land  fronting  the  future  Bund  (water-front  drive)  and  con- 
taining about  half  an  acre  each,  sold  for  from  $3,000  to  $6,000  (Mexican) 
according  to  location. 

"  One  large  block  of  about  if  acres  in  extent  was  sold  to  a  Chinese 
merchant  for  $6,250  (Mexican)." 

[    116    ] 


OFFICIAL   GERMAN    COLONIZATION 

already  been  guessed,  he  was  a  money-lender,  and  was 
elected  by  his  creditors. 

Much  of  the  misery  in  Kiao  Chow  resulted  from 
home-sickness  and  inexperience,  but  still  more  from 
inexplicable  incapacity.  For  instance,  the  water  was 
unfit  to  drink — at  least  for  Europeans.  The  men  were 
pretty  generally  suffering  from  diseases  directly  con- 
nected with  tainted  water,  and  yet  there  were  no  dis- 
tilling machines  in  operation — not  even  the  warships 
in  the  harbor  were  used  for  this  humane  purpose.  It 
was  natural  for  me  to  feel  that  the  German  ships  of 
war  which  I  had  met  in  August  of  1898  in  Philippine 
waters  might  have  been  better  employed  in  distilling 
water  for  the  suffering  soldiers  at  Kiao  Chow.  Such 
work  may  not  appear  glorious — but  it  saves  precious 
lives. 

Not  more  than  one  hundred  miles  away,  at  Wei-hai- 
Wei,  Admiral  Seymour  had  also  founded  a  colony  of 
Englishmen.  It  was  but  six  months  old — half  as  old 
as  the  German — yet  the  English  had  wholesome  water 
to  drink,  and,  consequently,  there  was  no  unusual 
amount  of  disease.  While  the  German  Admiral  was 
fretting,  the  Englishman  kept  his  men  cheerful  and 
strong  by  encouraging  outdoor  sports. 

Kiao  Chow  is  a  poor  thing,  as  ports  go.  It  will  cost 
millions  of  dollars  before  ships  can  anchor*  with  safety, 
let  alone  discharge  cargo  in  ordinary  weather.  It  is 
inferior  to  Wei-hai-Wei,  and  it  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand what  induced  (Germany  to  take  such  a  place  for 
such  a  ()urpose. 

Diwing  my  visiljlicrc-  was  nol  a  single  vessel  in  port 
that  was  nol   Ibcrc  on  ( io\  (•rnmcni  account  or  under 


OFFICIAL  GERMAN   COLONIZATION 

annexed  to  that  of  the  German  Empire  * — "  leased," 
is  the  more  polite  term. 

There  have  been  people  murdered  in  other  countries 
besides  China — in  the  United  States,  for  instance. 
Would  it  seem  right  that  a  country  should,  because 
one  of  her  subjects  had  been  murdered  in  Alaska, 
bombard  Washington  or  New  York  or  New  Orleans 
without  warning?  Would  not  reparation  have  been 
demanded  in  the  first  instance,  and  war  declared  after- 
ward? The  seizure  of  Kiao  Chow  took  place  in  a  time 
of  profound  peace,  under  no  adequate  provocation. 
It  was  an  act  of  war,  and,  though  China  could  not  at 
the  time  resent  it  by  force  of  arms,  we  may  rest  assured 
that  it  was  an  act  which  went  far  to  rouse  in  her  peo- 
ple the  resentment  that  in  1900  sustained  the  so-called 
"  Boxer  "  movement. 

Germany  sends  forth  her  children  by  the  hundreds 
of  thousands  to  strengthen  the  white  man's  dominion 
over  the  earth,  and  the  colonies  which  receive  them 
are  grateful  for  this  increase.  But  official  Germany 
calls  them  unpatriotic  and  preaches  the  duty  of  colon- 

•  The  German  Emperor  will  be  blessed  by  generations  unborn  for 
having  made  the  first  application  of  Henry  George's  theory  regarding 
land  tenure.  In  Kiao  Chow  the  Government  has  distinctly  set  its  face 
against  speculation  in  land  value.  Whoever  buys  a  parcel  of  land  is 
liable  to  have  it  repurchased  by  the  Government  at  the  end  of  a  limited 
term  of  years,  and  whatever  increase  in  value  it  may  have  acquired  is 
looked  upon  as  the  property,  not  of  the  man  who  first  purchased  it,  but 
of  the  community  through  whose  industry  the  unearned  increment  has 
come  into  existence. 

Australia  has  only  partially  recognized  the  justice  of  the  Henry  George 
doctrine  in  this  matter.  The  United  States  has  as  yet  made  no  sign  that 
she  means  to  apply  it  either  in  the  Philippines  or  Cuba.  At  present, 
therefore,  the  two  most  advanced  colonies  in  the  way  of  land  legislation 
are  New  Zealand  and  Kiao  Chow,  the  one  the  most  advanced  of  democ- 
racies, ths  other  a  mere  military  government. 

[    119   ] 


THE  CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

subsidy  of  the  German  Government.  I  saw  an  Ameri- 
can four-masted  schooner  from  Oregon  bump  her  bot- 
tom to  pieces,  because,  in  spite  of  her  captain's  repre- 
sentations, she  was  assigned  by  the  Governor's  orders 
to  an  unsafe  anchorage.  The  approaches  to  Kiao 
Chow  were  so  badly  charted  that  the  captain  of  the 
German  mail  steamer  had  to  go  a  hundred  miles  out 
of  his  course  on  the  short  run  from  Shanghai.  Physical 
defects  can  be  readily  repaired,  money  and  energy  can 
build  harbor-walls,  sink  artesian  wells,  and  complete 
charts.  But  officiahsm  is  the  vice  that  to-day  affects 
the  growth  of  Kiao  Chow;  the  inability  of  the  official 
mind  to  perceive  that  a  colony  must,  in  order  to  pros- 
per, be  governed  in  the  interest  of  the  colonists,  and 
not  merely  of  the  officials. 

The  seizure  of  Kiao  Chow,  like  that  of  South 
America  by  Spain,  was  ostensibly  from  religious  mo- 
tives. Two  Roman  Catholics,  missionaries,  had  been 
murdered  by  a  Chinese  mob  somewhere  in  the  interior, 
where  missionaries  are  particularly  requested  not  to 
penetrate.  The  German  Government  did  not  wait  un- 
til an  explanation  or  the  usual  reparation  could  be 
offered,  but  immediately  dispatched  a  squadron  to  take 
possession  of  Kiao  Chow.  The  Chinese  commander 
of  the  port,  when  he  saw  the  squadron  enter,  thought 
it  had  come  on  a  friendly  visit,  and  prepared  to  receive 
the  landing  party  with  sweetmeats  and  other  evidence 
of  kind  intentions.  But  his  friendly  offices  were  not 
accepted,  the  place  was  soon  occupied  by  German 
marines,  the  Chinese  flag  hauled  down,  the  German 
placed  in  its  stead,  the  peaceful  Chinese  i)oi)ulati()M  dis- 
possessed of  their  anccslral  homes,  and  the  territory 
1    iiS   1 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  NATIONS 

izing  only  under  the  German  flag!  The  German  citi- 
zen is  called  upon  to  pay  heavy  tribute  for  naval  and 
military  expenditure,  ostensibly  to  protect  German 
commerce  and  German  colonies.  But  the  practical 
colonist  smiles  at  these  pretexts,  they  are  mainly  polit- 
ical humbug.  German  commerce  and  German  emi- 
gration took  very  good  care  of  itself  before  ever  a 
colony  belonged  to  Germany.  The  industrious  Ger- 
man, like  the  Swede,  the  Norwegian,  the  Swiss,  the 
Italian,  spreads  himself  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  with- 
out a  thought  as  to  whether  he  has  a  big  navy  or  army 
at  home.  He  emigrates  to-day  in  order  to  better  him- 
self. If  his  country  ofifers  him  a  welcome  he  returns 
to  spend  his  fortune  there;  if  not,  he  spends  it  in  some 
other  place.  The  German  who  has  accumulated  a 
fortune  in  Milwaukee  or  Melbourne  will  spend  it  in 
Berlin  or  New  York  or  London,  according  to  his  taste. 
He  will  certainly  not  take  his  money  to  Berlin,  if  there 
he  is  confronted  with  the  same  species  of  official  and 
military  caste  that  excludes  his  fellow-merchants  from 
the  club  of  Kiao  Chow. 

The  history  of  German  colonization  is  a  short  one — 
a  thing  of  yesterday.  After  the  Franco-German  War 
the  then  Prime  Minister,  Bismarck,  embarked  upon  a 
series  of  domestic  measures  which  in  nearly  every  case 
were  either  failures  or  at  least  diminished  his  prestige. 
Socialism  increased  immensely  under  his  ungenerous 
administration,  his  quarrel  with  the  Pope  ended  in 
compromise,  his  persecution  of  the  Poles  made  him  no 
friends  even  in  Russia;  with  the  persecution  of  Danes 
he  had  but  scant  success.  Finally,  like  many  another 
perplexed  statesman,  he  took  up  foreign  ventures,  in 

[    120   ] 


OFFICIAL   GERMAN    COLONIZATION 

the  hopes  of  drawing  away  the  attention  of  his  fellow- 
countrymen  from  the  faults  he  committed  at  home. 

Colonial  societies  were  formed,  mainly  in  inland 
towns.  The  official  press  persistently  dwelt  upon  the 
glorious  future  that  might  be  expected  if  the  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  Germans  could  be  diverted  to  German 
colonial  soil.  Finally,  about  1884,  the  German  flag 
was  hoisted  over  a  large  number  of  very  hot  sand 
strips,  and  the  German  Empire  entered  upon  its  career 
of  alleged  colonization. 

In  times  past  Germans  have  made  colonial  efiforts, 
but  they  have  all  failed.  Charles  V.  gave  a  trading 
license  for  practically  the  whole  of  Venezuela  (in  1528) 
to  a  German  Company,  which  promised  at  one  time 
to  develop  into  a  species  of  *'  Chartered  Company." 
But  the  privilege  was  withdrawn  in  1550,  as  the  Ger- 
mans had  accomplished  nothing  to  warrant  a  continu- 
ance. The  Great  Elector  of  Brandenburg  entertained 
colonial  schemes,  and  Germans  under  his  auspices  are 
said  to  have  founded  trading  stations  in  the  West 
Indies  and  on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa.  For  the  sake 
of  finding  traces  of  this  I'randenburg  settlement,  which 
was  upon  the  island  of  St.  Thomas,  1  sailed  entirely 
around  the  island,  but  not  only  could  find  no  trace  of 
it  myself,  but  could  find  no  one  who  had  ever  heard 
of  such  a  settlement.  German  colonization  in  America 
has  never  partaken  of  llic  pioneer  character,  like  that 
of  the  Boers  in  South  Africa,  or  the  Tjiglish  in  New 
England.  The  niismlc  of  petty  German  princes  drove 
many  families  to  this  country  as  early  as  the  eighteenth 
century,  l)ut  in  no  rase  did  they  do  more  than  settle 
among  people  who  hnd  alrcadv  done  the  preliminary 
I    i^'i    I 


OFFICIAL  GERMAN   COLONIZATION 

These  emigrants  have  not  been  wholly  lost  to  Ger- 
many. On  the  contrary,  they  have  carried  with  them 
a  love  of  the  old  Fatherland,  much  as  that  love  has 
been  strained  by  harsh  government.  When  they  make 
a  fortune  their  thoughts  turn  naturally  to  Germany,  to 
the  land  of  their  ancestors — the  home  of  their  Schiller 
and  Goethe,  their  Bluecher  and  their  Ernst  Moritz 
Arndt. 

That  to-day  German  trade  is  so  great  as  to  support 
the  two  largest  steamship  lines  in  the  world  is  owing 
largely  to  the  Germans  that  have  settled  at  the  ends 
of  those  lines.  All  the  million  square  miles  of  colonial 
Germany  are  as  nothing  compared  to  any  one  of  a 
dozen  American  cities — not  merely  as  regards  trade, 
but  as  regards  Germans  controlling  that  trade.  Offi- 
cial Germany  desires  to  divert  Germans  from  America, 
where  they  are  happy,  and  plant  them  in  official  colo- 
nies, where  they  are  sure  to  be  wretched.  There  is 
nothing  new  in  this,  but  the  time  has  gone  by  when 
colonies  can  be  planted  in  such  a  manner.  The  colony 
that  succeeds  to-day  is  not  the  one  in  which  are  the 
largest  number  of  soldiers  and  officials,  but  the  one 
that  gives  the  colonists  the  widest  opportunities,  not 
merely  for  earning  a  living,  but  for  living  in  liberty 
while  earning.  The  English  colonies  offer  this  attrac- 
tion to  the  German;  and  the  Yankee  welcomes  him 
cordially.  There  is  scarcely  an  American  town  in 
which  Germans  do  not  figure  among  the  leaders  of 
political,  social,  or  commercial  activity.  At  Yale,  in 
my  day,  I  can  recall  few  professors  or  tutors  that 
had  not  studied  at  a  German  University.  German 
thought,  German  industry  —  these  have  leavened 
[  ^23  ] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

work  of  establishing  order  in  a  new  land.  We  cannot 
determine  with  exactitude  the  number  of  men  who 
deserted  from  the  regiments  sold  to  George  III.  by 
German  princes  during  the  American  War  (1776- 
1783).  We  know  that  King  George  was  bound  to 
pay  a  given  sum  for  all  those  that  were  killed,  and  it 
was  to  the  obvious  advantage  of  the  German  princes 
that  as  many  as  possible  should  remain  in  America. 
Desertion  from  the  British  ranks  was  assisted  in  those 
days  by  scattering  leaflets,  which  informed  the  Ger- 
man mercenaries  that  if  they  would  leave  the  ranks 
and  throw  in  their  lot  with  the  colonists  they  should 
receive  land  and  be  otherwise  well  treated.  There  is 
good  reason  to  suppose  that  many  out  of  the  40,000 
who  came  to  this  country  as  soldiers  remained  to  be- 
come American  citizens. 

The  great  European  revolution  of  1848  furnished 
another  contingent  of  emigrants  to  this  country — 
notable  not  merely  for  numbers,  but  for  the  high 
average  of  education  represented  by  the  political  refu- 
gees. These,  through  their  connection  with  the  press 
of  Europe,  were  in  a  position  to  furnish  accounts  of 
the  United  States  which  awakened  a  yet  wider  de- 
sire to  emigrate  to  the  New  World.  The  opening 
of  California  with  her  wealth  of  precious  metals,  the 
enormous  expansion  of  new  territory  beyond  the  Mis- 
sissippi, the  opportunities  of  acquiring  farms  for  the 
asking — these  causes,  uniting  with  the  establishment 
of  steam  navigation  on  I  he  Atlantic  and  a  daily  cheap- 
ening of  the  cost  of  transportation,  created  a  stream 
of  ricrmnn  cnn'gration  which  was  pretty  constant  dur- 
ing the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
[   122  ] 


THE   CHILDREN    OF   THE   NATIONS 

America;  yet  Germany  reaps  her  reward  as  well, 
though  she  seems  unconscious  of  it.  It  is  not  a  re- 
ward in  the  shape  of  a  German  flag  fiying  over  the 
Capitol  at  Washington,  or  another  slice  of  map  painted 
in  German  color.  Her  triumph  is  nobler  than  this. 
Germany  can  rejoice  in  the  thought  that  the  thou- 
sands whom  she  has  driven  beyond  her  borders  for  a 
living  have  found  under  the  American  flag  opportuni- 
ties that  were  denied  at  home;  her  children  have  been 
well  looked  after;  they  have  been  allowed  to  speak 
their  mother  tongue  and  to  practise  religion  after  their 
own  fashion.  They  have  secured  the  same  rights  as 
the  people  among  whom  they  have  cast  their  lot. 
While  official  Germany  has  persecuted  Poles,  Danes, 
and  Frenchmen  for  cultivating  their  own  language,  the 
United  States  has  done  the  reverse,  and  the  result  has 
been  that  Germans  find  it  agreeable  to  learn  English  as 
quickly  as  possible. 

When  in  1620  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  reached  Massa- 
chusetts, in  a  ship  not  bigger  than  a  Gloucester  fishing 
schooner  of  to-day,  they  fell  on  their  knees,  thanked 
God  for  their  safety,  and  then  set  to  work  building — 
first  homes,  then  churches,  then  schools. 

When  I  happened  to  be  in  Kiao  Chow,  not  even  the 
soldiers  had  barracks  fit  to  keep  out  the  rain;  two 
buildings  of  mud  fit  for  cow-stables  represented  the 
hotel  accommodation.  There  was  no  wharf  for  land- 
ing general  stores,  no  storehouses  for  the  custom 
house.  There  was  no  water  fit  to  drink,  and  no  means 
of  procuring  any.  Labor  was  almost  impossible  to 
procure,  even  for  the  Government,  and  I  found  the 
head  of  a  great  German  manufacturing  house  painting 
[  124  ] 


OFFICIAL   GERMAN   COLONIZATION 


the  shutters  of  his  hut  because  he  could  find  no  one 
to  do  the  job  for  him. 

Yet  in  such  an  hour  official  Germany  was  employ- 
ing a  long  train  of  coolies  for  the  purpose  of  erect- 
ing— what  do  you  suppose?  A  distilling  plant?  A 
recreation  ground  for  the  men?    A  church? 

None  of  these! 

These  precious  coolies  were  employed  in  erecting  a 
monument  to  Admiral  Diedrichs,  who  had  seized  the 
place  twelve  months  before ! 


[  125  1 


COLONIAL  PORTUGAL  IN  OUR  TIME 

regarded  as  snares  for  the  unwary.  Buoys  were  some- 
times placed  correctly,  sometimes  not — and  sometimes 
they  disappeared  mysteriously.  The  commander  of  a 
mail-steamer  requires  reasonable  certainty  in  these 
matters,  and  prefers  many  hours'  delay  rather  than  the 
chance  of  going  to  pieces  on  an  uncharted  bank. 
Shortly  before  my  arrival,  an  American  four-masted 
sailing-ship  had  gone  ashore  in  water  marked  abundant 
by  the  symbols  of  Portuguese  maritime  administration. 
The  captain  of  that  ship  was  on  his  first  voyage  to 
Portuguese  East  Africa,  or  he  would  have  known  bet- 
ter than  to  trust  anything  but  his  lead-line. 

Merchants  on  shore  told  me  of  a  Portuguese  gov- 
ernor who,  in  an  outburst  of  ambition,  induced  his  Gov- 
ernment to  furnish  a  light-ship  that  might  simplify  exit 
and  entrance  during  the  night.  In  the  course  of  time 
this  useful  vessel  arrived,  and  it  was  hailed  by  the  trad- 
ing community  as  the  dawn  of  a  new  era,  worthy  of  the 
nation  which  had  produced  a  Vasco  da  Gama. 

The  Governor  not  only  recognized  the  value  of  a 
light-ship  at  night,  but  utilized  it  also  by  day  as  well, 
for  cargo  purposes.  This  craft — half  lighter,  half  light- 
ship— gave  unbounded  satisfaction  to  official  Portugal. 

Lighterage  rates  were  high,  and  the  Governor  soon 
had  the  satisfaction  of  learning  that  he  had  outdis- 
tanced all  other  maritime  countries  by  making  his 
light-house  service  not  merely  inexpensive,  but  actually 
a  source  of  profit.  The  day  seemed  to  have  dawned 
when  the  Nore  Light-ship  would  commence  to  earn 
its  living  by  taking  bricks  from  Southend  to  the  Med- 
way,  or  the  Sandy  Hook  light  operate  as  an  excursion 
barge  between  Ccmey  Island  and  Long  Branch. 
[  127  ] 


X 

COLONIAL   PORTUGAL   IN   OUR  TIME 

*•  God  si/ted  a  whole  nation  {^England)  that  he  might  send  choice 
grain  into  the  wilderness.  {New  England,  i620.y^ — William 
Stoughton,  Election  Sermon,  1688. 

Some  Personal  Notes  on  Delagoa  Bay — Macao — The  Moluccas — 
The  Portuguese  Slave-trade  and  Missionary  Enterprise 

THE  Portuguese  have  in  Delagoa  Bay  the  best 
— I  had  almost  said  the  only — first-class  har- 
bor between  the  Zambesi  and  Cape  Town,  It 
is  the  nearest  port  for  the  Transvaal  gold-fields,  and, 
under  ordinary  conditions,  the  visitor  would  be  justi- 
fied in  expecting  here  a  settlement  rivalling  Cape 
Town  in  commercial  activity.  For  more  than  four 
centuries  Portugal  has  enjoyed  possession  of  these 
coasts,  and  here,  if  anywhere,  Providence  seems  to  have 
thrown  together  pretty  much  all  the  conditions  of 
colonial  success — save  the  one  without  which  no  com- 
munity can  prosper,  not  even  at  Delagoa  Bay — I  mean 
honest  government. 

On  the  occasion  of  my  visit  (1896)  the  approaches 
to  the  harbor  were  so  marked  by  the  authorities,  that 
mariners  who  knew  the  place  treated  it  as  one  where 
charts  ceased  to  have  value.  'Hie  signs  which  in  other 
ports  help  the  navigalor  lo  his  anchorage  are  here 
[   126  ] 


THE    CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

Our  thrifty  Governor  of  Delagoa  Bay,  however,  had 
barely  time  to  receive  the  thanks  of  his  Government, 
before  a  succession  of  wrecks  off  the  port  warned  him 
that  his  invention  lacked  one  or  two  features  to  make 
it  complete.  The  beach  combers  and  wrecking  com- 
panies had  no  fault  to  find,  but  the  owners  of  ships 
complained  because  the  light-ship,  when  it  finished  its 
work  as  a  lighter,  was  wont  to  anchor  in  that  part  of 
the  bay  which  was  most  convenient  for  the  next  day's 
job.  The  triumph  of  the  Governor  was  complete  so 
long  as  the  sun  was  shining,  but  when  ships  after  dark 
sailed  in  by  the  light  of  a  jack  o'lantern,  the  result  was 
more  startling  than  satisfactory. 

The  law  compelled  me  to  land  at  the  custom-house. 
The  same  law  had  forbidden  an  enterprising  Ameri- 
can company  from  building  a  wharf  at  which  ships 
could  have  loaded  and  unloaded.  To-day  passengers 
and  goods  are  first  dumped  over  the  side  in  small  boats, 
then  rowed  ashore  to  the  sandy  beach,  then  once  more 
unloaded,  then  transported  to  the  custom-house  and 
there  inspected.  Then  they  are  sent  off  by  rail,  to  es- 
cape death  and  demurrage;  for  Delagoa  means  death 
to  all  but  those  who  thrive  on  swamp  microbes. 

On  landing  I  found  myself  walking  amidst  what 
seemed  to  be  the  ruins  of  some  vast  "  department 
store  "  of  a  "  universal  provider."  A  cyclone  seemed 
to  have  suddenly  blown  away  roof,  sides,  and  supports, 
and  spattered  the  sands  of  East  Africa  with  samples  of 
nearly  every  commodity  known  to  man  or  woman. 

There  were  bags  of  rice,  whose  contents  were  min- 
gling with  the  leakings  of  petroleum  kegs;  Waterbury 
clocks,  electrical  machinery,  ladies'  bonnets,  boots  and 
[  128  ] 


COLONIAL   PORTUGAL   IN   OUR   TIME 

shoes,  cigars,  patent  medicines — these  and  others  too 
many  to  mention  were  scattered  about  in  most  dis- 
tracting profusion.  Amidst  this  wreck  of  material 
civilization  there  strolled  listlessly  many  ginger-colored 
manikins  representing  the  Rule  of  Portugal  at  this 
port.  There  were  also  big  naked  black  porters  of  the 
Zulu  type,  who  made  the  Portuguese  officials  look 
even  smaller. 

The  ginger-colored  officials  and  their  black  porters 
could  afford  to  smile  at  the  commercial  havoc  round 
about  them.  The  one  who  did  not  smile,  however,  was 
the  white  merchant  seeking  distractedly  amidst  the 
sand-swept  spaces  of  this  so-called  custom-house  for 
the  different  parts  of  a  steam-engine,  a  hoisting  gear, 
or  the  contents  of  a  new  drug-store.  The  many  Ht- 
tle  Portuguese  officials  were  living  mainly  upon  illegal 
fees  extracted  from  these  wretched  white  merchants 
of  Johannesburg.  The  Transvaal  Government  was 
also  a  good  customer  of  the  Delagoa  Bay  officials,  who, 
in  consideration  of  money  paid,  connived  at  extensive 
importation  of  Boer  War  material  which  was  ambigu- 
ously labelled:  "  Machinery  " — and  which  made  itself 
felt  in  the  winter  of  1899- 1900. 

During  my  stay,  the  Foreign  Minister  of  the  Trans- 
vaal, Dr.  Leyds,  appeared  mysteriously  one  evening 
by  train  from  Pretoria,  pulled  out  at  once  to  a  German 
man  o'  war  which  had  arrived  that  morning  by  a  curi- 
ous coincidence,  and  the  next  morning  early  returned 
to  the  Boer  capital.  No  papers  mentioned  this  strange 
visit.  There  was  merely  an  official  paragraph  in  his 
(jovcrnmenl  organ  slating  that  Dr.  Lcyils  had  left 
town  for  his  hcallli! 

I    '-"J  1 


THE  CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

Yet  Delagoa  Bay  is  not  by  nature  doomed  to  be  a 
white  man's  terror.  To-day  it  is  pestilential  merely 
because  it  is  Portuguese.  The  port  of  Durban,  which 
the  British  once  regarded  as  dangerous  to  health,  to- 
day is  not  merely  a  good  all-round  place  of  residence 
for  the  white  man,  but  is  frequented  as  a  health  resort 
by  visitors  from  other  parts  of  South  Africa.  Anglo- 
Saxon  enterprise  has  drained  its  swamps,  built  broad 
macadamized  roads,  introduced  a  sewage  system  and 
provided  plenty  of  good  drinking  water.  Durban  by 
nature  is  a  much  poorer  port  than  Delagoa,  but  thanks 
to  good  administration  she  has  in  forty  years  accom- 
plished more  than  Portugal  in  four  hundred. 

It  would  be  a  blessing  to  every  white  man  in  South 
Africa  if  to-day  England  would  administer  Delagoa 
Bay  in  trust  for  the  commerce  of  the  world,  as  she 
governs  Hong-Kong  and  Singapore.  The  German 
and  Boer  merchants  yearn  for  this  no  less  than  the 
American  and  the  English,  but  official  red  tape  and 
national  jealousies  intervene. 

In  Delagoa  Bay  I  found  only  a  few  houses  fit  for 
residence,  and  they  were,  as  might  be  expected,  the 
official  residences  of  consuls  or  high  Portuguese  offi- 
cials. The  rest  of  the  town  was  a  shabby  gathering, 
measured  even  by  the  low  standards  of  African  coast 
towns.  I  was  shown  an  official  map  of  the  place  which 
depicted  broad  and  extensive  boulevards,  public  parks 
with  fountains,  handsome  embankments  along  the  cool 
river  front,  and  public  buildings  on  a  scale  to  rival 
those  of  Cape  Town.  This  map  was  intended  for  Lis- 
bon.and  Lisbon  only.  In  South  Africa  it  was  regarded 
as  a  joke  on  the  part  of  the  Governor;  for  it  reminded 
[  130  ] 


COLONIAL   PORTUGAL   IN   OUR   TIME 

one  of  the  famous  city  of  Eden  described  by  Dickens 
in  "  Martin  Chuzzlewit." 

Though  this  country  is  populated  by  an  excellent 
race  of  negroes,  labor  of  any  kind  was  difficult  to  ob- 
tain because  of  the  bad  reputation  of  the  Portuguese. 
Every  road  leading  to  the  town  was  infested  by  dram 
shops;  and  beyond  debauching  them  and  taxing  them, 
I  could  discover  no  interest  taken  by  the  Government 
in  a  race  singularly  helpless  and  remarkably  amenable 
to  white  man's  influence. 

The  Roman  Church  did  much  to  strengthen  Por- 
tugal in  Africa.  Her  missionaries  organized  the  na- 
tives into  missions  and  encouraged  respect  for  Por- 
tuguese law  long  after  Portugal  had  ceased  to  show 
herself  capable  of  enforcing  it.  But  as  the  Church  sank 
in  public  esteem  in  Europe,  her  powers  diminished 
in  the  colonies,  and  throughout  the  eighteenth  century 
one  can  mark  a  steady  decline  of  clerical  as  well  as 
political  influence  on  the  part  of  Portugal. 

The  loss  of  all  her  missionary  prestige  has  been  at- 
tributed by  competent  judges  (notably  by  Theall)  to 
the  fact  that  in  Africa,  at  least,  the  Roman  Church 
admitted  negroes  to  Holy  Orders  for  the  purpose  of 
sending  them  as  missionaries  to  their  fellow  blacks. 
The  experiment  was  disastrous,  for  in  the  great  major- 
ity of  cases  the  native  proved  incapable  of  resisting 
the  many  temptations  surrounding  a  celibate  clothed 
with  the  powers  of  priesthood. 

As  early  as  1464  negroes  were  sold  as  slaves  in  Lis- 
bon; and  though  at  various  times  the  Church  and  the 
Covcrnnicnt  have  condoinned  it  in  (he  abstract,  Por- 
tugal has  tolerated  slavery  in  lier  colonies,  if  not  at 
[   131  1 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  NATIONS 

home,  from  her  earliest  intercourse  with  the  black  man 
to  our  day.  And,  unfortunately  for  that  country,  the 
blood  of  her  children  has  become  so  mingled  with  that 
of  natives  that  to-day  the  name  Portuguese  carries 
with  it  no  race  distinction.  Throughout  the  colonial 
world,  all  who  think  themselves  a  peg  above  mere  na- 
tives and  obviously  cannot  claim  to  be  white,  are  en- 
tered by  courtesy  as  Portuguese. 

Poor  little  Macao,  at  the  very  gates  of  Canton,  was 
the  first  European  settlement  in  China — the  port  from 
which  started  a  glorious  train  of  missionaries  and  am- 
bassadors, who  first  opened  the  Chinese  world  to  Eu- 
ropean civilization;  poor  little  Macao  lives  to-day  by 
nibbling  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  the  tables  of  the 
neighboring  Englishman  at  Hong-Kong.  Her  streets 
are  deserted  but  for  a  few  Chinamen,  a  few  tourists,  a 
few  officials,  and  a  large  number  of  mulatto-looking 
nuns  and  priests  who  seem  half  alive.  There  are  also 
some  little  Portuguese  soldiers  who  guard  a  little  fort 
and  mount  guard  at  the  palace  of  a  little  governor,  and 
carry  guns  many  sizes  too  big  for  them,  and  look  alto- 
gether barely  equal  to  the  Chinese  coolies  along  the 
water  front — man  for  man.  The  commerce  of  the  Port 
has  gone,  driven  away  by  bad  government.  It  is  Dela- 
goa  Bay  all  over  again,  in  so  far  as  in  both  places  man 
has  done  what  he  could  to  destroy  what  the  Creator 
had  given  him  to  cultivate. 

During  my  visit  to  Macao  (1898)  there  was  momen- 
tary prosperity,  owing  to  the  large  number  of  priests 
that  had  taken  refuge  there  from  the  wrath  of  the 
Filippinos.  They  created  a  boom  in  hair  restorers  as 
well,  for  they  intended  to  go  back  as  soon  as  their  ton- 
[  132  ] 


COLONIAL  PORTUGAL  IN  OUR  TIME 

sures  should  have  ceased  to  betray  them  to  the  fol- 
lowers of  Aguinaldo. 

As  the  traveller  of  to-day  wanders  about  the  little 
peninsula  of  Macao  and  sees  it  garrisoned  by  a  breed  of 
man  compared  with  whom  the  Chinaman  appears  to 
be  a  warrior,  it  is  indeed  hard  to  appreciate  that  so  far 
back  as  1520 — one  hundred  years  before  the  settle- 
ment of  New  England — the  name  of  Portugal  was 
mighty  throughout  the  eastern  world,  from  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  to  India,  and  from  India  to  the  Spice  Isl- 
ands, as  far  as  New  Guinea. 

The  famous  Spice  Islands,  lying  between  Singapore 
and  New  Guinea,  were  particular  objects  of  Portuguese 
attention,  not  only  because  of  the  high  price  which 
their  products  commanded  throughout  Europe,  but 
because  of  the  opportunity  for  missionary  enterprise. 
It  was  to  acquire  these  islands  that  Magellan,  after 
vainly  importuning  the  Government  of  Lisbon,  suc- 
ceeded finally  in  persuading  Spain  to  support  him  in 
his  enterprise.  It  was  on  this  journey  that  he  first 
discovered  the  Southern  Cape  of  South  America,  and, 
though  he  lost  his  own  life  in  the  Philippines,  some 
of  his  men  made  the  first  circumnavigation  of  the 
globe,  with  a  cargo  of  spices  vvhicli  paid  for  the  expe- 
dition six  times  what  it  originally  cost. 

When  I  sailed  (1876)  through  the  famous  islands 
that  inspired  the  journey  of  this  great  navigator,  I 
looked  in  vain  for  traces  of  Portuguese  Christianity,  or 
even  government.  Among  the  Moluccas,  naked  sav- 
ages armed  with  spears  and  poi.soned  arrows  swarmed 
about  our  ship,  offering  us,  as  their  most  precious  ar- 
ticle of  commerce,  dozens  of  chocolate-colored  babies. 

f  Kv^  I 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  NATIONS 

Nothing  is  more  pathetic  under  any  circumstances 
than  a  baby,  but  a  canoe  full  of  babies — far  away  from 
land,  offered  for  sale  by  savage  brutes  at  prices  vary- 
ing from  the  price  of  a  turkey  to  that  of  a  pig — this 
made  a  sad  epitome  of  Portuguese  Rule! 

That  was  in  the  heart  of  the  Portuguese  Moluccas^ 
after  four  centuries  of  mission  work.  The  natives  with 
whom  I  came  in  contact  had  in  many  instances  been 
wounded  by  poisoned  arrows,  for  their  bodies  showed 
the  frightful  marks  left  by  the  knife.  They  had  cut 
the  mortifying  flesh  clean  out  as  though  it  had  been 
the  decayed  part  of  an  apple. 

These  islands  are  still  a  favorite  resort  of  pirates,  and 
the  ship  I  sailed  on  was  prepared  to  fight  if  circum- 
stances demanded.  She  mounted  two  pieces  of  artil- 
lery, besides  a  full  complement  of  rifles,  pistols,  and 
cutlasses. 

Now  that  the  United  States  flag  is  at  Manila,  it  may 
reasonably  be  expected  that  a  serious  effort  will  be 
made  to  establish  commercial  security  throughout  that 
part  of  the  world.  Holland,  it  is  true,  has  large  inter- 
ests in  the  neighborhood,  notably  Java,  but  she  has 
so  far  shown  little  inclination  to  become  a  water  police- 
man beyond  her  own  immediate  front  door.  We  may 
confidently  look  forward  to  the  time  in  the  near  future 
when  the  United  States  of  Australia  will  not  merely 
fall  heir  to  the  colonial  posts  of  Portugal  in  the  Far 
East,  but  exercise  throughout  the  waters  of  the  East 
Indies  a  "  Monroe  Doctrine  "  analogous  to  that  which 
Uncle  Sam  maintains  in  the  Caribbean  Sea. 


[  134] 


XI 

THE    FIRST    YEARS    OF    PORTUGUESE 
GREATNESS 

**  Notre  {^France)  politique  continentale,  sous  peine  de  ne  nous 
valoir  que  des  de'boires,  doit  etre  desormais  essentiellement  defensive, 
C est  en  dehors  de  P  Europe  que  nous  pouvons  satisfaire  nos  legitimes 
instincts  d'' expansions.  Nous  devons  travailler  a  la  fondation  d'' un 
grand  Empire  Africain,  et  d^ un  moindre  Asiatique.'*'' — Leroy 
Beaulieu,  "  de  la  Colonization,"  ed.   i89i,p.  ix. 

Early  Explorer-s — Henry  the  Navigator — Albuquerque — Relations 
With  Africa  and  the  Far  East 

THE  early  years  of  Portuguese  exploration, 
conquest,  and  missionary  enterprise  read  al- 
most like  a  fairy  tale,  so  crowded  are  they  with 
dazzling  feats  performed  by  a  handful  of  men  against 
what  appear  to  be  gigantic  odds.  What  has  become  of 
those  heroes?  The  boundaries  of  Portugal  are  to-day 
what  they  were  then;  the  Church  that  inspired  mis- 
sionary zeal  is,  if  possible,  richer  and  more  powerful 
t(j-day  than  when  St.  Francis  Xavier  landed  in  Macao; 
she  yet  holds  vast  unexplored  territories  keenly  cov- 
eted by  other  countries,  yet  from  day  to  day  her  power 
slips  from  her  grasp  like  a  sword  from  the  hand  of  a 
dying  man. 

Portugal,  at  the  accession  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  in- 
cluded the  whole  coast  of  Africa  from  Morocco  around 
f  135  1 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  NATIONS 

the  Cape  to  the  Red  Sea;  India  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Indus  to  that  of  the  Ganges;  the  richest  islands  of  the 
Malay  Archipelago,  and  a  fortified  station  at  the  very 
gates  of  Canton.  This  takes  no  note  of  Brazil,  a  vast 
empire  by  itself.  Looked  at  on  the  map,  the  colonial 
power  of  Portugal  seemed  to  embrace  everything 
worth  having,  excepting  what  Spain  claimed  in 
America  and  the  Philippines.  She  appeared  to  be  a 
power  to  whom  could  be  compared  only  the  England 
of  to-day,  in  the  extent  of  her  possessions  and  the  en- 
terprise of  her  people. 

And  it  was  by  the  son  of  an  English  woman  that  she 
was  thrust  into  the  front  rank  of  nations.  Henry,  the 
Navigator,  as  this  Portuguese  prince  was  called,  was 
born  in  1394.  His  mother  was  Philippa,  sister  of  the 
English  Henry  IV.  He  grew  up  in  the  midst  of  a 
generation  which  was  just  resting  from  more  than  a 
century  of  warfare  against  the  Moors,  a  struggle  that 
enlisted  the  savagery  of  religious  zeal  no  less  than 
the  love  of  plunder.  It  was  a  time  when  local  liberty 
still  existed  and  when  promotion  came  to  others  than 
mere  favorites  of  the  Court  and  the  Church.  Portugal 
was  but  an  insignificant  part  of  the  Iberian  Peninsula 
and  her  population  was  only  1,000,000;  but  big  men 
are  not  necessarily  the  product  of  big  countries,  for  in 
that  case  Russia  would  be  the  nursery  of  European 
heroes. 

This  remarkable  prince  did  not  himself  take  part  in 
the  expeditions,  but  from  a  secluded  workshop  at  Cape 
St.  Vincent  he  inspired  the  men  whom  he  fitted  out 
for  distant  enterprises,  and  himself  raised  the  funds  and 
calculated  the  chances  of  success  from  a  profound  study 
[  136] 


PORTUGUESE   GREATNESS 

of  all  the  information  about  the  world  and  its  products 
which  was  then  accessible. 

In  early  days  the  Far  East  was  a  vague  country,  to 
which  Christians  had  access  only  through  Venetian  and 
Genoese  traders,  who  sailed  to  the  ends  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, to  Constantinople,  to  Egypt,  and  there  ex- 
changed the  wares  of  Europe  for  products  which  had 
been  brought  by  caravans  across  China,  or  on  Arab 
dhows  from  the  Red  Sea  and  the  Persian  Gulf. 

Nothing  very  distinct  was  known  of  the  Far  East, 
but  that  little  was  calculated  to  create  a  strong  desire 
for  nearer  acquaintance.  Early  travellers  reported  fab- 
ulous wealth,  and  that,  combined  with  the  fact  that  this 
wealth  was  being  appropriated  exclusively  by  infidels, 
was  enough  to  give  the  Church,  also,  a  lively  interest 
in  the  question. 

The  Turks  were  then  the  terror  of  all  Christian  na- 
tions, from  Vienna  to  Lisbon,  and  the  Church  regarded 
with  particular  favor  any  person  or  government  that 
accomplished  anything  calculated  to  injure  Mohamme- 
dan influence.  Therefore  the  idea  of  seeking  access  to 
the  Far  East  by  way  of  the  African  shores  was  one  par- 
ticularly congenial  to  the  people  of  that  time,  for  the 
reason  that  all  the  approaches  to  the  treasures  of  India 
were  guarded  by  the  Arabians,  who  recognized  the 
Sultan  as  the  head  of  their  Church. 

History  delights  in  telling  of  heroic  deeds,  and  we 
are  all  inclined  to  give  the  hero  his  due.  But  heroes 
must  have  money  in  order  to  fit  out  the  expeditions 
necessary  for  Ihe  exhibition  of  their  peculiar  virtties, 
l-'xpcdil ions  are  costly  things,  and  even  Portugal  of  (he 
fiflcciilli  centurv,  backed  as  it  was  with  tiic  wealth  of 
[    '.^7  1 


THE  CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

the  Church,  could  not  afford  to  send  out  exploring- 
ships  that  did  not  come  back  with  produce  enough  to 
pay  expenses.  Much  as  we  to-day  glory  in  the  deeds 
of  our  pioneering  ancestors,  we  may  as  well  recognize 
the  truth  that  the  early  navigators  and  explorers  did 
next  to  nothing  that  was  not  directly  connected  with 
the  procuring  of  pecuniary  profit. 

Prince  Henry  was  forty-seven  years  old  before  his 
efiforts  for  discovering  the  sea  route  to  India  met  with 
any  success.  He  had  made  a  few  attempts  to  work 
his  way  down  the  African  coast,  but  found  no  great 
encouragement  until  144.1,  when  his  ships  got  well 
within  the  tropics  on  the  Guinea  coast  and  laid  the 
foundation  of  his  country's  greatness  by  kidnapping 
some  native  chiefs.  These  were  subsequently  ransomed 
for  a  handsome  cargo  of  slaves,  gold  dust,  and  other 
precious  things,  and  on  returning  to  Lisbon,  the  people, 
from  the  King  down,  became  enthusiastic  in  the  cause 
of  an  exploration  which  promised  kindred  results.  The 
Pope  cheerfully  gave  his  blessing  to  the  enterprise,  and, 
furthermore,  gave  Portugal  a  monopoly  of  all  trade 
round  Africa  to  India.  The  slave-trade  was  found  to 
be  the  most  profitable  element  of  the  early  ventures, 
and  from  this  date  cargoes  of  negroes  were  sold  in 
Portugal,  the  proceeds  of  which  enriched  the  Church 
as  well  as  the  heroes,  who  needed  the  money  for  new 
conquests.  Discovery  was  the  best  paying  investment 
of  the  day,  particularl}'^  the  discovery  of  negroes. 

In  1446  trade  was  established  with  the  African  coast 
near  Cape  Verde  on  an  island  called  Arguim,  the  same 
which  two  hundred  years  later  was  occupied  by  Prus- 
sians from  Brandenburg — but  not  for  long. 
[  138  ] 


PORTUGUESE  GREATNESS 

In  1487  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  was  rounded,  and 
further  voyages  received  still  more  ample  government 
support,  from  the  fact  that  in  1492  the  voyage  of  Co- 
lumbus created  a  well-grounded  fear  that  the  Spaniards 
might  dispute  the  control  of  the  Eastern  trade.  At 
one  time,  Portugal  fitted  out  a  great  fleet  for  the  pur- 
pose of  preventing  Spain  from  sending  ships  across 
the  western  ocean,  for  that  was  then  presumed  to  be 
another  way  to  the  Far  East.  The  Papal  Bull  of  1493, 
which  divided  the  new  world  in  half  between  these  two 
people,  did  not  satisfy  the  Portuguese,  and  they  -cnt 
an  ultimatum  to  Madrid  insisting  that  the  world  should 
be  divided  not  into  eastern  and  western  halves,  but 
into  nortJieni  and  southern — the  south  to  belong  to 
Portugal,  the  north  to  Spain,  Had  the  Pope  adopted 
this  view,  Cortes  and  Pizarro  might  have  secured  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay  and  Virginia  instead  of  Mexico  and 
Peru,  and  Portugal  might  have  colonized  Australia! 
South  Africa  would  now  be  talking  Portuguese  and 
Canada  would  be  talking  Spanish! 

The  Great  Prince  Henry  died  in  1460,  but  the  evil 
genius  which  presided  over  Portugal  would  have  it 
that  another  great  man,  the  noble  Albuquerque,  should 
take  up  his  work.  This  pioneer  is  conspicuous  in  Por- 
tuguese history  because  he  was  honest  in  his  official 
relations.  Six  years  after  the  discovery  of  America. 
Vasco  da  Gama  anchored  a  Portuguese  fleet  in  a  har- 
bor of  India,  and  within  a  few  years  AlI)U(|uer(|ue  had 
completed  the  work  of  that  navigator  by  establishing 
the  right  to  trade  at  i)rclty  nearly  every  port  of  the 
coast . 

ThcKing,by  virinc  of  lliis.  look  lln-  titU-  which  must 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

have  sounded  large  even  to  people  of  that  day — "  Lord 
of  Conquest,  Navigation,  and  Commerce  over  Ethio- 
pia, Arabia,  Persia,  and  China." 

This  was  mainly  "  bunkum,"  for  all  the  conquest 
consisted  in  the  right  to  establish  factories  or  trading 
stations.  At  Macao  the  Portuguese  were  regarded  as 
vassals  of  the  Chinese  Emperor,  paying  tribute  annu- 
ally. 

In  1 5 10  Albuquerque,  after  great  dif^culties,  secured 
Goa,  on  the  West  Coast  of  India,  as  a  harbor  for  Por- 
tugal. Some  six  thousand  Arabians  who  had  settled 
there,  w'ere  by  him  put  to  death,  and  he  divided  their 
confiscated  property  among  his  friends,  the  new  set- 
tlers,— compelling  them  at  the  same  time  to  marry 
natives  and  identify  themselves  with  the  country.  This 
method  had  a  certain  immediate  advantage,  but  the  re- 
sult was  not  calculated  to  dignify  the  white  man  in  the 
eyes  of  the  people  he  had  conquered.  The  native  was 
elevated  a  very  little  bit;  the  white  man  was  degraded. 
Hence  it  is  that  to-day  throughout  the  East,  Goa  is  a 
by-word  for  a  mixed  breed,  part  Indian,  part  negro, 
part  white,  which  furnishes  ships-stewards,  barbers, 
and  a  class  of  nondescript  menials  who  are  regarded 
with  more  pity  than  respect — a  people  with  neither 
pride  of  ancestry  nor  hope  in  posterity. 

Henry  died  at  the  age  of  sixty-six,  Albuquerque  at 
sixty-three.  They  are  the  two  great  names  of  Portu- 
guese histor}' — with  perhaps  one  other — that  of  the 
poet  Camoens.    Albuquerque,  like  Camoens,*  died  in 

*  In  Macao  I  was  shown  a  beautiful  garden  and  grotto  overlooking  the 
sea,  where  this  poet  is  said  to  have  written  a  portion  of  the  Lnsiad,  a 
national  epic  glorifying  the  early  Portuguese  navigators.  This  poem,  a 
wearisome  copy  of  Homeric  methods,  is  yet  interesting  from  having  been 

[    140   ] 


PORTUGUESE   GREATNESS 

poverty,  if  not  disgrace — both  were  honest  men,  and 
both  made  enemies  by  trying  to  stem  the  tide  of  official 
corruption. 

Albuquerque  died  in  Goa,  in  15 15.  With  him  died 
the  spirit  that  made  his  country  great;  his  loss  was 
never  replaced.  The  career  of  Portugal  went  on  for 
a  while  under  the  impulse  which  he  had  imparted,  but 
the  corruption  which  he  had  sought  to  suppress  gained 
the  upper  hand,  until  her  rule  soon  became  little  more 
than  despotism  tempered  by  corruption. 

produced  in  part  so  near  to  the  equator.  Macaulay,  Kipling,  Stevenson 
— a  few  names  only  occur  to  one  in  this  connection ;  it  would  be  inter- 
esting to  discuss  at  length  the  effect  of  the  tropics  upon  the  intellectual 
capacity  of  the  white  man. 


r  'n  1 


XII 

THE   COLONIAL    BREAK-UP    OF    PORTUGAL 

'♦  The  judgment  of  history  is  that  France  lost  Canada  through 
the  policy  of  religious  exclusiveness  which  her  rulers  pursued.'^ — Cf 
Parkman's  **  Montcalm  and  Wolfe,"  333,  viii. 

St.  Francis  Xavier — Jesuits  in  China — Official  Corruption — Mili- 
tary Decadence 

THE  regeneration  of  the  Papacy  which  followed 
close  upon  the  heels  of  the  Reformation  of 
Martin  Luther  was  felt  in  the  Indies  no  less 
than  in  America.  Goa  was  the  metropoHtan  city  of 
the  Portuguese  East  Indies,  and  here  in  1542  landed 
the  missionary  par  excellence,  whose  life  has  earned  for 
him  the  title  of  Saint  Francis  Xavier,  He  was  the  first 
Jesuit  in  the  Far  East,  and  for  so  long  as  his  spirit 
controlled  the  clerical  administration,  European  cult- 
ure, if  not  Christianity,  spread  with  extraordinary 
rapidity.  The  Jesuit  believed  in  persuasion.  He  was 
prepared  to  compromise,  if  necessary,  in  order  to  se- 
cure an  intellectual  ascendancy  over  those  whom  he 
desired  ultimately  to  convert.  In  the  Orient  he  met 
scholars  that  by  no  means  acknowledged  the  superior- 
ity of  the  white  man,  save  in  the  mere  matter  of  brute 
force;  and  as  for  his  religion,  it  presented  few  ad- 
vantages over  their  own.  The  Jesuits  recognized  that 
if  Christianity  was  to  make  progress,  particularly 
[  142  ] 


COLONIAL  BREAK-UP  OF  PORTUGAL 

among  people  so  scholarly  and  tenacious  as  the  Chi- 
nese, the  ascendancy  of  the  white  man's  civilization 
must  be  demonstrated.  Every  effort  was  therefore 
made  to  gain  access  to  the  rulers,  to  win  their  confi- 
dence by  imparting  instruction  in  mathematics,  as- 
tronomy, and  other  sciences.  Whether  the  court  of 
China  adopted  Christianity  to-day  or  to-morrow,  or  a 
hundred  years  hence,  was  of  minor  consideration  to 
the  Jesuit  Fathers — they  were  preparing  the  ground 
for  ultimate  harvest. 

In  the  history  of  Portuguese  colonization  the  only 
exception  to  their  chronic  state  of  administrative  cor- 
ruption and  failure  is  the  work  done  by  Jesuits.  The 
very  fact  of  their  expulsion  from  Goa  and  Macao,  in 
1768,  is  evidence  that  they  were  not  parties  to  the  vi- 
cious administration.  It  was  the  excellence  of  Jesuit 
missionary  work  in  India  and  China,  no  less  than  in 
Paraguay  and  Mexico,  that  united  against  this  order 
the  vindictive  hatred  not  merely  of  colonial  offtcials, 
but  of  rival  orders. 

Goa  is  now  a  dead  city  like  Macao,  existing  because 
England  is  her  neighbor  and  gives  employment  to  most 
of  her  population.  It  had  at  one  time  thirty  churches 
and  30,000  priests,  and  was  a  mighty  seat  of  commerce 
before  the  British  Lion  had  learned  to  swim.  But 
from  the  moment  that  Portuguese  soldiers  and  sailors 
had  to  fight  against  the  white  man  instead  of  against 
negroes  and  tlic  degenerate  people  of  East  India,  Por- 
tugal commenced  to  go  down,  down,  down,  until  even 
I  he  Chinaman  and  the  Mahratta  treated  it  with  con- 
tempt. Goa  to-day  is  visited  only  out  of  curiosity — to 
sec  the  burial  place  of  St.  l-'rancis  Xavier. 

T  11.^  1 


THE  CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

In  1595  the  merchants  of  Amsterdam  sent  their  first 
fleet  to  the  East  Indies,  and  in  1600  the  English  East 
India  Company  established  stations  in  Sumatra  and 
Java.  These  were  "  merchant  adventurers,"  and  they 
asked  of  the  Portuguese  merely  the  right  to  trade  on 
equal  terms.  But  the  Portuguese  insisted  on  abso- 
lute monopoly,  and  so,  until  their  possessions  were 
reduced  to  a  mere  handful  of  feeble  stations,  they  con- 
tinued to  waste  what  little  money  they  had,  in  a  war- 
fare which  ultimately  destroyed  their  prestige  among 
the  natives. 

In  India  government  positions  were  offered  for  sale, 
plundering  expeditions  were  organized  against  helpless 
natives,  even  the  monasteries  were  called  upon  for  con- 
tributions; but  all  in  vain.  As  fast  as  Portugal  sent 
forth  ships,  they  were  seized  and  destroyed  by  the 
enemy. 

At  the  very  beginning  she  produced  a  few  strong 
governors  like  Albuquerque;  but  after  his  death  the 
Government  adopted  the  "  Spoils  "  system,  of  allowing 
colonial  officials  only  a  term  of  three  years  of  office. 
The  reason  for  this  was  that  the  king,  or  the  party  in 
power,  desired  frequent  means  of  rewarding  political 
or  personal  friends. 

It  is  hard  to  fix  upon  any  one  date  more  important 
than  another  in  the  long  down-hill  progress  of  colonial 
Portugal.  In  1640  Goa  was  not  able  to  send  any  ships 
home  from  sheer  lack  of  men  and  money.  Yet  at  that 
time  there  were  more  priests  than  white  inhabitants  in 
the  colony. 

Two  years  after  the  Puritans  landed  in  Massachu- 
setts Bay,  Portugal  lost  Ormuz  and  with  it  the  trade 
[  144  ] 


COLONIAL  BREAK-UP  OF  PORTUGAL 

of  the  Red  Sea  and  Persian  Gulf.  She  gave  letters  of 
marque  to  any  ships  which  desired  to  embark  in  pri- 
vateering against  her  enemies,  but  there  were  no 
takers.  In  her  desperate  straits  she  forbade  the  erec- 
tion of  any  monasteries.  Her  soldiers  were  deserting 
and  turning  monks — driven  to  extremes  by  the  Gov- 
ernment's inability  either  to  feed  or  pay  them.  Brass 
guns  were  stolen  from  her  forts  with  such  frequency 
that  iron  guns  were  substituted.  Even  for  the  trade 
between  Goa  and  neighboring  points  in  the  East 
Indies,  the  Portuguese  flag  offered  so  little  security 
that  her  merchants  chartered  English  ships.  In  1661 
the  most  frivolous  of  the  Stuarts  did  his  country  enor- 
mous service — unintentionally,  of  course — by  wedding 
a  Portuguese  princess,  a  part  of  whose  dowry  was 
Bombay.  At  that  time,  this  was  considered  as  of  less 
importance  than  the  2,000,000  of  cruzados  that  went 
with  it,  for  Charles  always  needed  money  and  preferred 
one  cruzado  in  hand  to  all  of  India  that  could  not  be 
hypothecated.  When  Charles  died,  his  widow,  Cathar- 
ine of  Braganqa,  retired  to  a  house  which  is  still  one 
of  the  interesting  features  of  Chelsea — now  occupied 
by  an  American  family.  Considering  that  Bombay 
was  the  means  of  England's  ultimately  acquiring  all 
of  India,  it  would  seem  fitting  to-day  that  this  house 
be  purchased  and  preserved  as  a  monument  for  future 
generations. 

Portugal  in  the  Far  East  furnished  little  more  of  in- 
terest after  this.  Bombay,  under  English  rule,  at  once 
commenced  to  flotn^ish  and  to  nitract  to  itself  new  com- 
merce. 

Macao  sustained  herself  for  a  time  by  the  opium 
\   >  IS   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

trade,  but  when  England  (in  1841)  settled  at  Hong 
Kong,  almost  within  sight,  the  principal  Macao  mer- 
chants moved  to  the  British  island,  and  those  who  did 
not,  either  went  home  or  became  monks.  In  the  year 
i860  the  coolie  trade  with  the  United  States  made  its 
head-quarters  at  Macao,  but  after  the  close  of  the 
American  Civil  War,  even  that  little  "  boom  "  stopped; 
and  since  then  all  that  has  kept  Macao  alive  has  beeen 
a  few  gambling  tables,  in  connection  with  a  big  hotel. 
On  the  occasion  of  my  visit  the  harbor  of  Macao  had 
so  shallowed  through  neglect,  that  the  commerce  of 
the  port  had  sunk  to  what  might  be  expected  at  a  neg- 
lected way-station  near  an  important  market. 


[  146] 


XIII 

PORTUGAL   IN   AMERICA 


**  But  scarcely  any  man,  however  sagacious,  would  have  thought 
it  possible  that  a  trading  company  [East  India  Company)  separated 
from  India  by  1^,000  miles  of  sea,  and  possessing  in  India  only 
a  few  acres  for  purposes  of  commerce,  would,  in  less  than  a 
hundred  years,  spread  its  empire  from  Cape  Comorin  to  the  eternal 
snow  of  the  Himalayas;  would  compel  Mahratta  and  Mahommedan 
to  forget  their  mutual  feuds  in  common  subjection;  would  tame  down 
even  those  wild  races  which  had  resisted  the  most  powerful  of  the 
Moguls  ;  and,  having  united  under  its  laws  100,000,000  of  sub- 
jects, would  carry  its  victorious  arms  far  to  the  east  of  the  Bur- 
rampooter,  and  far  to  the  west  of  Hydaspes,  dictate  terms  of  peace 
at  the  gates  of  Ava,  and  seat  its  vassal  on  the  throne  of  Candahar.*' 
— Macaulay  "Clive." 

Founding  of  Brazil — ^Jesuit  Missions — Criminals 

IN  1500  a  strong  fleet  under  Cabral  *  sailed  from 
the  Tagus  with  the  intention  of  conquering  more  of 
India.  They  were  forced  westward,  and  sighted,  to 
their  great  surprise,  the  coast  of  South  America.  Ac- 
cording to  the  quaint  custom  of  the  time,  a  Portuguese 
priest  delivered  a  long  sermon  to  a  crowd  of  curious 
natives  who  understood  not  a  word,  and  this  meant 
that  Brazil  was  claimed  by  the  Pope  of  Rome.    Then 

*  It   is  not  kiKJWii  of  (■!il)ral  t-xiictly  when  he  was  Ijoru,  or  in  what 

f'car  he  died  ;  indeed  little  of  him  has  come  down  in  history  save  his 
)rief  but  lieroic  period,  when  lie  annexed  lira/.il  and  made  a  siitccsslul 
voyage  to  the  i'iust  Indies. 


I   •  17  J 


THE  CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

a  notice  board  was  set  up,  announcing  that  temporal 
control  was  claimed  by  the  King  of  Portugal.  We 
may  infer  that  colonization  pure  and  simple  was  not 
wholly  popular  at  that  time,  for  the  reason  that  of  the 
whole  expedition  no  one  chose  to  settle  here  excepting 
two  criminals  condemned  to  penal  servitude  for  life! 

In  those  days  geography  was  at  best  a  hazy  subject, 
and  even  the  Pope  had  to  make  some  daring  guesses 
when  he  drew  the  line  between  the  Eastern  and  West- 
ern World.  It  had  been  his  intention  to  give  the 
whole  of  the  Western  Continent  to  Spain,  and  he 
therefore  named  a  longitude  which,  in  the  latitude  of 
Lisbon,  seemed  to  be  equidistant  between  Europe  and 
America.  But  the  well-meaning  pontiff  learned  too 
late,  that  the  easternmost  point  of  South  America  was 
almost  on  the  same  meridian  as  the  Azore  Islands.  At 
that  time,  however,  Spain's  power  was  abundantly 
taxed  elsewhere,  and  Portugal  herself  attached  small 
importance  to  Brazil,  save  as  a  station  where  her  ships 
might  refresh  themselves  on  their  way  to  the  Cape.  ■  A 
few  years  later  Spain  comforted  herself  to  some  extent 
by  seizing  the  Philippines  (1521),  which  were  obviously 
within  Portuguese  jurisdiction.  Though  at  that  time 
this  excited  some  geographical  controversy,  no  defi- 
nite conclusion  was  reached,  because  of  the  confusing 
evidence  as  to  w'here  they  really  were.  Spain  treated 
them  as  an  annex  of  Mexico,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
the  longitude  of  Manila  is  nearly  that  of  Peking.  It 
is  no  small  credit  to  the  Church  that  it  was  strong 
enough  in  that  age  to  keep  the  peace  between  these 
two  colonizing  forces. 

In  the  year  1530,  about  thirty  years  after  its  dis- 
[  148  ] 


PORTUGAL    IN   AMERICA 


covery,  Portugal  took  steps  to  colonize  Brazil.  Great 
baronial  estates  were  marked  out,  running  parallel  from 
the  coast  like  the  great  scigneuries  which  border  the 
St.  Lawrence  River.  These  were  called  donatarios, 
and  became  practically  little  colonial  kingdoms  or  char- 
tered companies,  whose  rulers  did  pretty  much  what 
they  chose,  although  nominally  subject  to  the  laws  of 
the  mother  country.  These  tracts  were  given  away  to 
those  who  proved  that  they  had  the  necessary  capital. 
Portugal  reserved  to  herself  a  certain  share  in  the 
profits,  but  otherwise  practically  relieved  herself  of 
responsibility  so  far  as  the  internal  administration  was 
concerned.  One-fifth  of  all  precious  metals  and  one- 
tenth  of  the  natural  products  of  the  soil  were  reserved 
to  the  Crown.  But  it  is  not  worth  while  enumerating 
the  details  of  the  compact  between  the  Crown  and 
these  colonial  chiefs,  because  there  was  no  adequate 
machinery  for  protecting  the  Government  with  respect 
to  her  part  of  the  bargain.  The  governors  of  these 
great  tracts,  called  capitanias,  were  given  a  free  hand 
as  regards  subletting  or  selling  to  individual  settlers, 
making  internal  improvements  and,  above  all,  making 
the  natives  work  for  the  white  man.  It  is  interestinsf 
to  note  tliat  this  form  of  colonization,  with  all  its  faults, 
managed  to  introduce  a  certain  degree  of  local  self-gov- 
ernment, which  at  that  time  was  so  rare  that  it  gave 
Brazil  a  relative  advantage  of  gixat  importance.  For 
almost  two  centuries — at  least  until  1700,  when  gold 
was  discovered — Portugal  allowed  Brazil  to  go  her 
own  way,  much  as  England  neglected  her  New  Eng- 
land colonies,  and  ff)r  llu-  same  reasons.  Although 
Brazil  is  now  independent,  it  must  be  recorded  to  the 
[    M-;  ] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

credit  of  little  Portugal  that  it  was  she  and  not  Spain 
who  planted  in  the  western  world  a  colony,  not  only 
the  largest  in  area,  but  the  richest  and,  relatively 
speaking,  the  best  governed.  The  separation  from  the 
mother  country  in  1828  occurred  without  violence, 
when  the  population  of  Brazil,  as  well  as  her  trade, 
largely  exceeded  that  of  the  mother  country.  That 
this  was  the  case  is  due  largely  to  the  liberty  which  the 
colonists  originally  secured  to  themselves,  to  the  agri- 
cultural nature  of  their  occupation,  to  the  fact  that  the 
colonists  came  to  found  a  permanent  home.  It  is  fortu- 
nate for  Brazil  that  Portugal  was  so  weak ! 

Of  course  she  passed,  or  perpetuated,  pretty  much 
the  same  laws  as  did  Spain,  regarding  the  exclusion  of 
foreigners  from  her  trade,  punishment  of  heretics,  and 
the  other  measures  of  intolerance  which  characterize 
those  years  of  monopoly  and  bigotry.  -But  the  harsh- 
ness of  this  legislation  was  enormously  mitigated  by 
the  regard  for  pecuniary  success  which  animated  the 
chiefs  of  the  great  "  chartered  companies."  None  but 
Catholics  were  admitted  under  Portuguese  law.  but 
where  a  Crozvn  official  would  have  handed  a  question- 
able colonist  over  to  the  Inquisition,  the  agent  of  a 
donatario  comforted  himself  with  the  reflection  that  the 
money  of  a  heretic  weighed  just  as  much  as  that  of  a 
Papist.  Liberty  gained  a  still  further  start  in  Brazil 
from  the  fact  that  in  a  few  of  the  great  donatarios 
original  promoters  were  shipwrecked,  or  for  some  other 
reason  failed  to  take  possession  of  their  estates,  and, 
consequently,  communities  of  "  squatters "  formed 
rude  republics  without  any  reference  to  other  law  than 
what  they  made  for  themselves.  If  the  rest  of  Spanish- 
[  150] 


PORTUGAL   IN   AMERICA 


America  were  not  so  wretched  to  contemplate,  from  the 
stand-point  of  human  development,  little  could  be  said 
for  Brazil.  Of  the  fifteen  original  baronial  grants,  three 
only  showed  any  signs  of  progress  at  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century — at  which  time  the  total  population 
of  all  Brazil;  including  the  blacks,  was  only  5,000  souls, 
less  than  the  number  of  emigrants  who  sometimes  land 
in  a  single  week  in  New  York.  The  mother-country 
now  and  then  showed  her  interest  by  unloading  crim- 
inals there — the  largest  cargo,  four  hundred — arriv- 
ing in  1549. 

In  1549  arrived  the  first  of  the  many  Jesuits,  and 
with  them  came  new  life  into  Brazil.  Through  their 
influence  the  colonists,  who  had  been  living  rather  reck- 
lessly with  Indian  women,  were  induced  to  marry  and 
bring  up  their  children  in  regular  ways;  Portuguese 
white  girls  were  brought  over  and  married  to  settlers; 
schools  were  established,  and  a  check  was  placed  upon 
a  condition  of  life  which  in  a  few  years  would  have 
dragged  the  white  man  down  to  the  level  of  the  native. 
From  this  day  until  1767,  when  the  Jesuits  were  ex- 
pelled, they  exerted  a  strong  educational  influence 
upon  the  colony,  and  while  they  were  pretty  generally 
disliked  because  of  their  opposition  to  slavery,  yet  even 
their  enemies  conceded  that  it  was  to  their  missions 
among  the  Indians  that  the  white  man  owed  the  se- 
curity in  which  he  was  able  to  work  profitably.  The 
Jesuits  secured  the  passage  of  many  laws  regulating, 
if  not  abolishing,  the  enslaving  of  Indians,  and  these, 
though  they  were  not  strictly  enforced,  did  much  to 
discourage  tiic  cni])l()yincnl  of  "  natives  "  on  estates. 
But  the  result  was  <;iily  to  make  slave-raiding  the  more 
I   151   J 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

profitable  in  Africa,  for  it  is  curious  that  the  same 
Church  which  protected  the  natives  of  Brazil  should 
have  treated  with  indifference  those  of  Mozambique 
and  the  Guinea  Coast.  Brazil,  like  every  other  Ameri- 
can colony,  was  at  constant  war  with  itself  over  the 
treatment  of  natives.  The  planters  unanimous  on  one 
side,  a  certain  section  of  the  priesthood  and  the  home 
government  on  the  other.  Thanks  to  the  indifference 
or  connivance  of  Crown  colonial  officials,  slavery  had 
many  centuries  of  triumph,  for  it  is  only  in  our  day  that 
the  equality  of  all  men  before  the  law  has  been  ac- 
knowledged throughout  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese 
world. 

The  study  of  colonies  is  one  that  cannot  be  made 
merely  from  books  and  official  reports.  The  laws  of 
Portugal  and  the  letters  of  successive  governors  do 
not  prepare  the  traveller  for  the  political  debauchery 
that  oppresses  Delagoa  Bay,  and  the  degenerate  des- 
uetude that  characterizes  Macao.  Nor  does  Portu- 
guese history  stoop  to  notice  the  mighty  trifles  which 
in  time  made  Brazil  a  strong  nation. 


[  152  ] 


XIV 

THE    EVOLUTION    OF   THE   BOER 

Julian  Ralph,  <'At  Pretoria,"  p.  i-] ,  says  of  the  Boer:  ^' All 
his  attributes  are  those  of  the  clever  stalker  of  wild  and  savage 
game. ' ' 

Conflict  between  Dutch  East  India  Company  and  the  Boers — At- 
titude of  England  Toward  the  Boers — Future  of  South  Africa 

THE  nineteenth  century  has  known  the  Boer  of 
South  Africa  mainly  through  his  efforts  to 
avoid  British  jurisdiction  at  the  centre  of  South 
Africa.  His  efforts  in  this  direction  have  been  charac- 
terized by  so  much  bravery,  moral  virtue,  and  religious 
piety,  that  he  has  succeeded  in  drawing  to  his  side  the 
sympathies  of  continental  Europe  as  against  the  one 
country  whose  flag  represents  freedom  of  commerce, 
religious  tolerance,  and  local  self-government. 

It  is  a  sad  reflection  that  political  and  religious 
intolerance  should  have  been  the  mainspring  of  move- 
ments which  have  done  great  good  to  our  race.  The 
religious  bigotry  of  France  sent  forth  the  Huguenots; 
the  petty  princes  of  Germany  drove  the  most  enter- 
prising of  their  people  to  America;  Brazil  was  leavened 
by  a  nucleus  of  Portuguese  Jews  who  were  outlaws  in 
their  own  country;  the  first  Englishmen  to  settle 
New  England  abandoned  their  country  in  order  to 
escape  a  tyrannical  Church  government.  And  if  tt)- 
[    '5.^  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

day  the  white  man  has  planted  his  foot  securely  upon 
the  high  central  plateau  of  the  great  black  continent, 
we  must  seek  the  cause  in  the  intolerance  which  char- 
acterized the  rule,  not  of  England,  but  of  her  predeces- 
sor, the  famous  Dutch  East  India  Company.  In  the 
cases  of  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Holland,  three  countries 
whose  colonial  expansion  was  abnormally  rapid  and 
whose  decline  appears  at  first  sight  equally  remark- 
able, certain  elements  are  striking  in  the  very  beginning 
of  their  career.  Spain  and  Portugal  developed  their 
greatest  strength  at  a  time  when  national  and  religious 
feeling  had  been  stirred  to  the  utmost  by  generations 
of  warfare  against  the  common  enemy  of  their  country 
and  their  religion. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  Philip  IL, 
though  acknowledged  as  the  richest  and  most  powerful 
of  kings,  found  that  his  most  mighty  Armada  was 
chased  into  fragments  by  a  handful  of  English  fishing 
boats  armed  with  men  like  Drake  and  Hawkins.  In 
the  Netherlands  his  troops,  reputed  invincible,  were 
repeatedly  baffled  by  Dutchmen,  whose  country  on  the 
map  hardly  shows  land  enough  to  make  the  canals 
worth  digging. 

The  years  which  saw  Spain  and  Portugal  rich  in  sol- 
diers but  poor  in  liberty,  found  little  Holland  an  insig- 
nificant state  in  what  pertains  to  pomp  and  circum- 
stance of  government,  but  invincible  in  the  qualities 
of  civic  and  commercial  rectitude,  religious  tolerance, 
and  aptitude  for  navigation.  Her  few  square  miles  of 
bog  and  sand  dunes,  peopled  by  a  handful  of  amphibi- 
ous heretics,  staggered  the  humanity  of  that  day  by 
the  ease  with  which  they  held  their  own  against  the 

r  154  ] 


THE   EVOLUTION   OF   THE   BOER 

mighty  ships  of  Spain  and  Portugal.  Little  by  little 
Dutchmen  learned  the  secrets  of  the  Far  East;  learned 
the  relative  prices  of  spices  and  silks,  and  established 
peaceful  relations  with  native  rulers.  Portugal's  un- 
popularity was  Holland's  opportunity.  Her  leading 
merchants  wisely  concluded  that  they  might  profit  by 
Spanish  and  Portuguese  failure;  contest  the  commerce 
of  the  world,  not  as  conquerors  or  even  monopolists, 
but  merely  as  traders  who  would  fight  only  when 
themselves  attacked. 

In  1602,  therefore,  was  formed  that  famous  Dutch 
East  India  Company,  which  embodied  the  highest  com- 
mercial spirit  of  the  age  and  was  a  huge  step  in  ad- 
vance of  anything  conceived  in  Spain  or  Portugal.  It 
was  to  some  extent  a  national  institution,  its  shares 
being  held  by  the  different  chambers  of  commerce 
throughout  the  country.  From  the  beginning  it  re- 
flected the  correct  mercantile  habits  of  the  nation,  and 
gained  its  ascendancy  in  the  Far  East  by  constantly 
holding  commercial  honor  high.  The  clerks  and  agents 
of  this  company  were  held  to  strict  accountability,  were 
forbidden  to  trade  on  their  own  account  and,  above 
all,  were  forbidden  to  approach  the  natives  in  any  other 
capacity  than  merchants.  They  sent  no  missionaries, 
and  (lid  not,  in  the  beginning,  even  care  to  build  forts. 
The  trade  they  offered  was  so  valuable  that  Eastern 
merchants  found  it  to  their  interest  to  cultivate  Dutch- 
men in  proportion  to  their  dislike  of  T^orlugal  and 
Spain.  In  j.-ip.-iii  (he  story  is  still  current  that  Dutch 
tr.'iclcrs  were  rulniitted  when  the  i'ortuguosc  had  been 
driven  out,  because  when  interrogated  regarding  the 
religion  wliiili  llie  fri;n"s  Ii.kI  made  odious,  the  new- 
I    ^S^  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

comers  answered  that  they  were  not  Roman  Catholics, 
"  they  zi'cre  Dutchmen!  " 

The  awakening  of  Holland  as  a  colonial  power  was 
under  conditions  somewhat  analogous  to  those  under 
which  Spain  and  Portugal  produced  her  heroes.  At 
the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  Dutch  had 
emerged  from  a  period  of  warfare  against  a  political 
and  religious  domination  which  they  detested,  and  were 
in  exactly  that  state  of  national  exaltation  which  fits 
men  for  enterprises  of  a  daring  nature. 

At  this  time  England  and  Holland  had  a  common 
bond  in  hatred  of  Spain  and  the  Papacy,  and  neither 
country  had  yet  developed  strength  enough  to  make 
her  progress  seem  a  danger  to  that  of  the  other. 

Modern  economists  have  had  much  to  say  against 
privileged  trading  companies,  no  doubt  influenced  by 
the  fact  that  nearly  all  of  them  have  ended  in  bank- 
ruptcy, owing  to  corruption  and  mismanagement. 

The  Dutch  East  India  Company  did  not  live  to  see 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  though  it  lived  too 
long  for  its  reputation;  yet  with  all  the  faults  of  its  late 
years,  it  accomplished  a  task  at  the  beginning  that 
would  have  been  almost  impossible  without  such  an 
organization.  The  fitting  out  of  a  merchant  ship  three 
hundred  years  ago  was  almost  as  much  of  a  venture  as 
in  our  day  the  journey  of  Stanley  across  Africa.  To- 
day the  trading-ship  captain  has  a  chart  of  the  seas 
he  proposes  to  navigate;  in  every  port  he  finds  a  con- 
sul who  watches  the  interest  of  his  flag;  his  cargo  is 
consigned  to  an  agent  who  unloads  the  vessel  for  him, 
loads  it  again,  and  settles  all  accounts  with  the  owners. 
He  finds  assistance  not  merely  at  the  hands  of  his  own 
[  156] 


THE   EVOLUTION   OF   THE   BOER 

countrymen,  but  from  those  of  every  other  nation,  and, 
in  short,  the  trade  to  the  Far  East  to-day  resembles 
more  a  yacht  cruise  in  one's  own  waters  than  the  voy- 
ages we  are  considering  when  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company  was  formed. 

There  were  then  ahnost  no  charts  or  light-houses  or 
consuls  or  agents  of  any  kind,  to  help  the  mariner  in 
difficulty.  If  his  ship  was  wrecked,  the  crew,  as  well  as 
the  cargo,  were  deemed  the  property  of  those  into 
whose  hands  they  fell.  Dutch  and  English  sailors  were 
put  to  death  or  enslaved  when  they  fell  into  Spanish  or 
Portuguese  hands — indeed  in  those  days  the  white 
man  fared  better  at  the  hands  of  the  Japanese  and  Chi- 
nese coasting  population,  than  at  those  of  his  fellow- 
Christians  on  the  shores  of  Europe.  In  those  days  not 
only  was  war  a  trade,  but  trade  itself  was  war,  and 
costly  as  all  war  must  be.  Trade,  therefore,  had  to  be 
organized  and  treated  as  a  form  of  war.  Dutch  mer- 
chants, before  the  founding  of  the  company,  had  no 
means  of  regulating  the  interval  between  cargoes.  A 
ship  might  enter  an  Eastern  port  after  a  costly  journey 
and  find  that  one  or  more  ships  had  preceded  her 
and  overstocked  the  market;  whereas,  had  those  ves- 
sels come  at  regular  intervals,  each  might  have  realized 
fair  profit. 

The  Dutch  East  India  Company  was,  therefore, 
nothing  more  than  a  practical  application  of  com- 
mercial principles  to  a  coninicrcial  (|ucslion  far  beyond 
the  capacity  of  a  small  corporation.  We  see  the  same 
sort  of  thing  every  day  in  America  under  the  name  of 
a  "  trust,"  wliicli  unites  uikIct  one  control  a  nunibtM-  of 
industrial  enterprises  of  .inalogous  character  for  the 
\   '57  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

purpose  of  economy  in  administration  and,  conse- 
quently, immunity  from  competition. 

The  original  monopoly  of  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company  was  a  "  trust  "  in  which  the  chief  trading 
communities  were  represented  as  share-owners.  This 
trust  was  national  to  the  extent  that  it  was  subject 
to  government  inspection  and  was  the  standard-bearer 
of  Dutch  power  in  the  Eastern  world.  If  ever  there 
was  such  a  thing  as  a  beneficent  monopoly  it  was  the 
Dutch  East  India  Company,  so  long  as  it  was  adminis- 
tered according  to  the  spirit  of  those  who  framed  its 
original  constitution. 

But  Holland,  unfortunately  for  her,  did  not  live  up 
to  the  constitution  of  her  great  monopoly.  Her 
progress  in  the  Far  East  was  so  rapid,  the  resistance 
of  Spain  and  Portugal  so  feeble,  that  little  by  little  she 
abandoned  those  liberal  trading  principles  which  had 
animated  her  at  the  outset,  and  entered  upon  a  policy 
of  exclusion  which  not  merely  involved  her  in  war 
with  England,  but  lost  her  the  good-will  of  the  natives, 
who  had  been  her  chief  support  from  the  very  begin- 
ning. 

She  began  to  pass  harsh  laws,  to  limit  the  planting 
of  spice-trees  in  order  that  the  price  might  remain 
high — her  inspectors  made  annual  tours  in  order  to 
destroy  all  plants  in  excess  of  those  allowed  by  law, 
natives  were  forbidden  to  trade  with  other  than 
Dutchmen,  and  they  were  forced  to  sell  their  products 
at  prices  that  were  not  fixed  with  reference  to  the 
producers. 

To  enforce  these  laws,  which  recalled  the  tyranny 
of  Spain  and  Portugal,  the  Dutch  had  necessarily  to 
[  158  ] 


THE  EVOLUTION   OF   THE   BOER 

revert  to  the  same  means — costly  military  establish- 
ments— forts  and  garrisons.  Thus  the  profits  of  the 
company  became  more  and  more  swallowed  up  in  cost 
of  administration. 

Then  too,  little  by  little,  a  large  permanent  staff 
of  officials  grew  up  to  watch  over  the  enlarged  admin- 
istrative area,  and  with  this  force  was  introduced  the 
same  sort  of  corruption  which  afflicted  Spain  and  Por- 
tugal. The  original  constitution  of  the  company  con- 
templated only  trade,  and  in  the  earlier  years  the  ser- 
vants of  the  company  were  mainly  sailors  and  clerks, 
with  a  few  agents  at  main  distributing  points.  But 
when  the  company  departed  from  this  principle  in 
order  to  impose  laws  upon  people  with  whom  they 
had  originally  sought  only  the  right  to  exchange  Eu- 
ropean goods  for  an  equivalent  in  spices,  then  a  new 
departure  was  made — trade  expansion  became  "  em- 
pire " — a  very  different  thing,  as  we  shall  see  later  on. 

From  1700  on,  the  company,  alarmed  by  the  wan- 
ing in  profits,  sought  to  improve  matters  by  changing 
her  officials  more  frequently — but  the  result  was  even 
worse,  for  the  man  who  expected  to  remain  but  three 
years  at  his  post  was  equally  disposed  to  make  his 
fortune  before  returning  home.  Clerks  who  left  Hol- 
land on  a  small  weekly  salary  returned  rich  men. 
This  condition  was  scandalous,  but  the  Ciovernnioiit 
proved  uncc|ual  to  the  task  of  introducing  a  reform. 
It  is  only  after  studying  the  failures  of  Spain  and  Por- 
tugal and  Holland  in  this  direction  that  one  can  ap- 
preciate Knglaiid,  which  has  commissioned  many 
privileged  c(jnipanies;  lias  checked  iheni  when  they 
have  gone  wrong,  called  them  to  account  without  in- 
[   159  J 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

terfering  with  their  commercial  usefulness,  and  shown 
the  world  that  she  can  produce  administrators  like 
Cecil  Rhodes  and  Warren  Hastings  without  endan- 
gering the  liberties  of  her  people  at  home — or  the 
rights  of  her  colonists  abroad. 

The  Dutch  paid  their  officials  poorly — and  in  con- 
sequence they  secured  men  who  attempted  to  make 
money  in  other  ways. 

To-day  Germany  pays  her  officials  also  very  little, 
but  this  is  the  day  of  telegraphs  and  fast  steamers 
— when  officials  at  Kiao  Chow  or  Dar  es  Salaam  can 
be  checked  from  Berlin  almost  as  easily  as  though 
they  were  in  Posen  or  Metz.  But  in  the  seventeenth 
century  the  Governor  at  Batavia,  on  a  salary  of  12,000 
gulden,  had  little  to  fear  during  his  term  of  office. 
There  was  no  regular  post,  and  all  his  brother  officials 
were  practically  fellow-conspirators,  leagued  against 
the  natives  for  purposes  of  gain.  The  Dutch  settle- 
ments in  the  East  Indies  soon  offered  little  advantage 
over  those  of  Portugal,  save  in  the  facts  that  the  Dutch 
did  not  interfere  with  native  religion,  and  did  not  prac- 
tise slavery  to  any  great  extent.  The  policy  of  the 
East  India  Company  became  more  and  more  tyran- 
nical and  narrow,  but,  as  its  activity  was  limited  mainly 
to  gathering  the  fruits  of  spice-trees,  there  was  no 
occasion  for  the  employment  of  large  bodies  of  slaves, 
as  in  the  plantations  and  mines  of  the  Portuguese  and 
Spanish  colonies.  The  Dutch  required  but  a  small 
number  of  servants,  for  domestic  purposes,  and  slavery 
under  such  conditions  caused  but  slight  complaint. 
Holland  attached  much  importance  to  the  Cape  as  a 
station  where  her  ships  might  refresh  themselves  on 
[  160  I 


THE   EVOLUTION   OF   THE   BOER 

the  way  to  and  from  Java,  but  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company,  far  from  showing  a  desire  to  colonize  the 
place,  passed  regulations  which  made  the  life  of  a 
white  colonist  almost  intolerable.  Nothing,  perhaps, 
illustrates  more  completely  the  relative  insignificance 
of  the  Cape  Colony  in  the  eyes  of  the  Dutch  than  that 
it  was  made  a  mere  appanage  of  Java.  A  crime  com- 
mitted at  Cape  Town  had  to  be  decided,  when  ap- 
pealed, at  Batavia,  not  at  Amsterdam.  It  is  from  this 
long  connection  with  Java  that  to-day  we  see  so  many 
Malays  about  the  streets  of  Cape  Town,  though  they 
are  practically  unknown  in  the  interior  or  farther  up 
the  coast. 

But  in  spite  of  the  selfishness  that  characterized 
the  Dutch  East  India  Company  toward  the  latter  half 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  so  excellent  was  the  cli- 
mate at  this  place  that  a  thin  stream  of  emigration 
found  its  way  thither,  partly  Dutch,  partly  French 
Protestants — and  these  were  from  the  outset  at  war 
with  the  repressive  measures  of  the  Dutch  Govern- 
ment. Thus,  naturally,  and  almost  imperceptibly, 
was  bred  a  race  roughly  analogous  to  the  American 
"  Frontiersman  "  who  chafed  under  the  restraints  of 
old-world  legislation,  and  whose  progress  was  marked 
by  perpetual  warfare  with  natives  and  wild  beasts. 
The  Great  Trek  of  1836  would  have  been  impossible 
but  for  the  preceding  generations  of  discontented 
colonists,  wlio  ended  the  dominion  of  their  legal  rulers 
by  settling  on  the  fringes  of  civilization  .-ind  becoming 
a  law  unto  themselves  and  to  the  natives  who  came 
witliin  range  of  their  rifles.  These  Boers  were  like  the 
American  backwoodsmen,  lougli  in  fibre,  lawless  as 
I    ir.i    1 


THE  CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

regards  the  law  of  men  whom  they  did  not  acknowl- 
edge, but  devout  Puritans  as  regards  the  law  of  God — 
at  least  that  portion  of  it  which  they  regarded  as  pecul- 
iarly suited  to  their  requirements.  Their  life  was  not 
favorable  to  the  founding  of  schools  and  churches. 
They  became  nomads — living  in  a  huge  tented  ox- 
wagon,  or  "  prairie-schooner,"  as  it  would  be  called  in 
America.  To-day,  in  spite  of  the  railway,  these  great 
family  ox-wagons  may  still  be  seen,  drawing  the 
Boers  farther  and  farther  from  the  civilization  they 
detest.  That  movement  must  proceed  as  it  did  in 
America,  until  the  "  cow-boy  "  finds  no  more  frontier, 
and  must  perforce  accommodate  himself  to  civiliza- 
tion as  best  he  can.  The  spirit  of  the  frontiersman  is 
a  strange  thing,  and  must  be  understood  if  the  history 
of  South  Africa  is  to  be  intelligible.  Blood  counts  for 
much,  and  the  Boer  could  not  show  his  present  tenac- 
ity of  purpose  did  he  not  acknowledge  his  Dutch  and 
Huguenot  ancestr)'.  But  the  Dutchman  of  Amster- 
dam can  no  more  understand  the  Boer  than  could  the 
cultivated  New  Englander  understand  the  people  of 
his  own  race  who  lived  by  choice  a  life  of  savagery  be- 
yond the  Mississippi  fifty  years  ago.  Legislators  of  to- 
day commit  the  common  mistake  of  regarding  the  De 
Wets  and  Cronjes  and  Krugers  as  Europeans  who  in 
our  day  have  become  rebels.  We  are  apt  to  think  of 
them  as  of  the  emigrants  who  land  in  New  York,  and 
in  a  few  months  become  voters  or  anarchists.  We  can- 
not accustom  ourselves  to  the  historic  evolution  of  a 
man  who  has  been  two  hundred  years  an  outlaw — who 
has  been  suckled  on  principles  which  we  count  as 
treasonable,  but  which  his  leaders  regard  as  conform- 
[  162  ] 


THE   EVOLUTION   OF   THE   BOER 

ity  to  the  will  of  God.  It  is  the  Boer  and  not  the  Eng- 
lishman who  conquered  the  upland  of  South  Africa; 
he  it  is  who  represents  white  aristocracy  from  the 
Zambesi  to  Cape  Town;  he  regards  himself  as  the 
superior  man,  physically  and  morally,  and  he  resents 
scornfully  the  pretension  of  any  government  toward 
suzerainty  over  him.  In  a  rough  way  his  case  bears 
analogy  to  that  of  the  strange  community  of  English 
Boers  who,  with  a  pecuHar  reHgion,  hardy  constitu- 
tions, and  boundless  ignorance,  penetrated  the  Ameri- 
can desert  and  created  a  splendid  isolation  for  them- 
selves in  Utah.  These  people  asked  no  favors  of  the 
United  States,  save  to  be  let  alone;  they  occupied 
land  which  was  of  no  value  save  through  the  irrigation 
which  they  introduced;  they  minded  their  own  busi- 
ness, assisted  in  spreading  the  white  race  amidst  sav- 
age tribes,  and,  with  the  one  exception  of  polygamy, 
did  nothing  to  excite  the  ill-will  of  the  paramount  gov- 
ernment. 

But  precious  metals  were  discovered  in  their  neigh- 
borhood, the  New  England  Yankee  knocked  at  the 
Mormon  gates;  he  was  refused  admission — so  he  went 
in  without.  The  fight  commenced,  and  now  the  Mor- 
mon figures  in  American  political  life  just  as  any 
other  white  man,  no  more  and  no  less.  The  Mormon 
had  thought  himself  as  strong  physically,  as  he  con- 
ceived himself  to  be  theologically  infallible.  When  his 
mistake  was  demonstrated,  he  conformed  to  the  new 
order  of  liiiu^s;   and  so  will  the  liocr. 

As  one  who  has  been  hospitnl)Iy  entertained  by  the 
l»()crs  in  lonely  farm  houses,  who  has  found  among 
them  men  of  rounded  rulltire,  of  honorable  instincts, 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 


and  fine  physical  courage,  the  subject  is  for  me  not 
an  easy  one  to  treat  without  causing  misunderstand- 
ing. In  situations  that  are  paradoxical,  it  is  hard  to 
make  any  statement  not  open  to  contradiction.  There 
are  so  many  different  kinds  of  Boers,  that  in  using 
the  word  I  am  conscious  that  it  comprises  almost  as 
much  variety  as  the  word  Englishman — which  in- 
cludes the  Piccadilly  dandy  and  the  East  End  coster- 
monger. 

The  Boer  most  in  evidence  of  late  is  he  of  the 
Kruger  *  type — the  man  who  hugs  the  memory  of 
Slaagter's  Nek.  The  average  Englishman  knows  no 
more  of  Slaagter's  Nek  than  he  does  of  Nathan  Hale, 
the  Yale  graduate  whose  hanging  during  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  determined  the  execution  of  ]\Iajor  Andre. 
But  every  American  school-boy  reveres  the  memory 
of  Nathan  Hale,  and  the  Kruger  Boer  holds  in  sacred 
recollection  the  martyrs  of  Slaagter's  Nek. 

The  story  in  a  nutshell  is  that  the  English  Govern- 
ment, in  1815,  condemned  to  death  and  hanged  half 
a  dozen  Boers  who  had  defied  the  authority  of  the 
English  courts  and  had  been  guilty  of  rebellion 
against  the  Crown.  The  case  was  perfectly  clear — 
quite  as  clear  as  that  of  Jameson  in  1896 — but  a  large 
part  of  Boer  public  sentiment,  even  while  deprecating 
the  action  of  the  rebels,  refused  to  admit  the  right  of 
England  to  govern  the  colony  which  Holland  had 
ceded  to  her  in  the  year  of  Waterloo.  The  Boers  did 
not  read  much,  and  cared  little  for  the  opinion  of 

*In  the  spelling  of  Kruger  I  am  following  the  orthography  employed 
by  the  late  President  himself  in  my  presence.  Why  the  English  and 
American  press  persists  in  putting  two  dots  over  the  u  I  cannot  under- 
stand.—P.  B. 

[    164   ] 


THE   EVOLUTION    OF   THE   BOER 

learned  jurists.  They  believed,  with  the  late  Henry 
George,  that  land  should  be  the  property  of  those  who 
made  good  use  of  it,  and  in  their  opinion  it  was  they 
and  not  the  English  who  were  improving  the  soil  of 
South  Africa.  Thus  from  the  very  beginning,  British 
expansion  in  South  Africa  caused  a  succession  of  con- 
flicts with  the  Boers,  who,  though  overborne  by  num- 
bers, always  retired — undismayed,  if  not  undefeated. 

In  the  early  days — before  1815 — the  Dutch  Gov- 
ernment disliked  the  Boer,  and  persecuted  him  more 
than  ever  did  the  English  in  the  succeeding  years. 
But  that  fact  has  been  lost  sight  of  nowadays,  when 
the  Dutch  of  Holland  seek  to  demonstrate  that  the 
Boer  is  their  kith  and  kin.  The  German  now  speaks 
in  the  most  affectionate  way  of  his  cousin,  the  Boer, 
for  it  is  the  fashion  to  pretend  that  the  Boers  would 
naturally  welcome  German  or  Dutch  control  in  South 
Africa.  But  this  view  is  entertained  by  people  who 
take  counsel  of  their  hopes  rather  than  of  history. 
The  Boer  dislikes  the  Hollander  cordially — their  ways 
are  very  far  apart,  and  the  supercilious  clerk  of  Rot- 
terdam excites  only  contempt  in  Pretoria.  He  was 
tolerated  because  Dr.  Leyds  declared  him  necessary. 

As  for  the  official  German,  the  Boer  of  South  Africa 
knows  him  as  a  neighbor  far  more  dangerous  than 
England.  Efforts  were  made  after  the  Jameson  Raid 
to  trek  away  into  German  West  Africa,  but  those  who 
took  part  in  this  came  back  so  much  discouraged  that 
llicy  effectually  put  an  end  to  all  desire  of  nearer  ac- 
<|naintance  with  their  cousins  from  Berlin.  Tndood, 
contact  with  official  Germany  has  done  nuich  to  recon- 
cile the  Boer  to  his  lot  mider  (he  English  (lag. 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

The  Boer  of  the  Kruger  type,  who  has  been  the  fore- 
most in  ambushing  the  advance  column  of  Enghsh 
progress,  is  grossly  misrepresented  when  credited  with 
a  preference  among  European  governments.  He  dis- 
trusts them  all  equally.  He  looks  upon  the  man  of 
modern  Europe  as  the  Puritans  of  the  Restoration 
looked  upon  frivolous  cavaliers. 

Of  all  Holland's  great  colonial  empire  South  Africa 
is  the  only  land  where  the  white  man  has  bred  a  strong 
race,  and  where  Dutch  is  spoken.  To  be  sure,  the 
Dutch  of  South  Africa  is  not  intelligible  to  a  classically 
bred  professor  of  Leyden — it  bears  the  same  relation 
to  the  mother-tongue  as  does  the  jargon  of  German- 
Switzerland  to  the  academical  accents  of  Hanover  or 
Bremen.  Each  can  understand  the  other,  after  a  pre- 
liminary course  of  misunderstanding — much  as  Span- 
iards get  along  with  Portuguese,  or  Norwegians  with 
Danes.  The  Dutch  tongue  may  live  for  some  time 
yet  as  a  secondary  language  in  certain  portions  of  the 
country,  but  every  Boer  recognizes,  even  to-day,  that 
English  is  necessary  for  him,  if  he  wishes  to  move  out 
into  the  broad  current  of  modern  life;  and  thus  with- 
out any  special  legislation  on  the  subject,  Dutch  will 
become  obsolete.  The  Huguenots  gave  up  their 
speech  for  Dutch,  the  Boers  will  surrender  theirs  for 
English. 

A  learned  German  official  recently  justified  the  ex- 
clusion of  Boers  from  German  West  Africa  on  the 
ground  that  it  would  be  a  national  disgrace  if  Dutch 
prevailed  in  a  German  colony! 

The  Germans  are  not  the  only  ones  who  have 
sought  to  compel  language  to  follow  the  flag,  and 
\  i66  ] 


THE   EVOLUTION    OF   THE   BOER 

they  will  probably  recognize  their  mistake  as  others 
have  had  to — too  late.  The  Government  of  Paul 
Kruger  made  desperate  efforts,  in  1896,  to  drive  Eng- 
lish out  of  the  Transvaal  schools  and  to  substitute 
Dutch  in  its  stead,  but  the  result  was  that  Boers  sent 
their  children  to  the  Orange  Free  State,  where  more 
liberal  maxims  prevailed. 

It  is  no  small  praise  to  the  Dutch  character  to 
recall  that  Boers  and  Anglo-Saxons  are  the  only  colo- 
nists that  have  kept  their  blood  pure.  The  Portu- 
guese and  Spaniards  not  merely  tolerated  the  abomi- 
nable practice  of  cohabitation  with  negroes,  they  even 
encouraged  it  as  a  means  of  more  rapidly  producing 
a  population  calculated  to  withstand  tropical  climates. 

In  early  New  England,  as  among  the  Boers,  the 
Bible  was  at  the  bottom  of  this  disinclination  to  mingle 
with  the  native.  The  Boer  looked  upon  the  Kaf^r  as 
the  Englishman  of  1620  looked  upon  the  red  Indian, 
as  one  of  the  heathen  tribes  which  they,  as  a  chosen 
people,  were  called  upon  to  exterminate,  after  the  ex- 
ample set  by  Joshua,  and,  indeed,  Joshua  reminds  me 
much  of  Paul  Kruger. 


[   i^>7  1 


XV 

THE    DUTCH    COLONIST    OF   TO-DAY 

"They  (the  American  backwoodsmen  of  i'j'/6)  were  relentless,  re- 
vengeful, suspicious,  knowing  neither  ruth  nor  pity  ;  they  were  also 
upright,  resolute,  and  fearless ;  loyal  to  their  friends  and  devoted  to 
their  country.'''' — Roosevelt,  "  Winning  of  the  West,"  I.,  133. 

Traces  of  Holland  in  New  York — Transvaal — British  Guiana — 
Contrast  of  Boer  and  Dutchman 

IF  any  general  proposition  regarding  colonies 
could  be  maintained,  it  would  possibly  be  that 
colonial  prosperity  follows  colonial  liberty.  Some- 
times liberty  in  the  colonies  has  preceded  liberty  in 
the  mother-country.  The  advantage  which  Holland 
originally  possessed  (1600)  over  her  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  rivals  was  largely  due  to  greater  commer- 
cial liberality.  So  long  as  she  had  no  other  rivals  her 
relative  superiority  remained,  but  she  clung  to  her 
system  long  after  it  had  proved  inferior  to  that  of 
England. 

Yet  the  traveller  to-day  marvels  at  the  permanent 
impression  left  by  the  early  Dutch  upon  colonies 
which  have  long  ceased  to  be  theirs.  Even  to-day 
the  most  substantial  buildings  in  the  Hudson  River 
Valley  are  massive  stone  farm-houses  recalling  the 
government  of  the  Dutch  East  India  Company,  which 
in  1 62 1  occupied  New  York  as  a  trading  post.  But 
[   168  ] 


THE  DUTCH   COLONIST   OF  TO-DAY 

the  Dutchman  of  New  York  was  no  match  for  the 
Yankee  from  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts — no 
chartered  company  could  hold  its  own  against  such 
competition.  The  Swedes  who  had  planted  colonies 
in  Delaware  and  New  Jersey  shared  the  same  fate. 
It  was  no  act  of  government  that  killed  these  colonial 
efforts,  for  at  that  time  New  York  presented  but  slight 
strategic  importance  either  to  the  soldier  or  the  trader. 
The  Dutch  and  Swedish  colonists  remained  and 
flourished,  but  their  children  preferred  the  English 
language,  for  purely  practical  reasons.  Dutch  domin- 
ion in  North  America  is  now  recalled  to  the  tourist 
only  by  such  names  as  "  Kaater's  Kill  Clove;  "  "  Spuy- 
ten  Duyvil;  "  "  Hoboken;  "  "  Harlem,"  etc. 

At  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  Dutch  occupation  is  at 
once  suggested  by  the  many  massive  quaint  gables 
that  adorn  the  residences  of  former  proprietors  from 
Amsterdam  and  The  Hague.  These  buildings,  of 
which,  perhaps,  that  of  the  Constantia  estate  is  the 
most  interesting  example,  were  eminently  suited  to 
English  requirements,  and  the  style  has  been  perpetu- 
ated over  a  large  portion  of  the  Cape  Colony.  There 
is  a  grand  yet  cosy  atmosphere  about  these  estates; 
magnificent  straight  avenues  of  shade-trees;  gardens 
surrounded  by  massive  hedges,  and  a  cultivation 
strangely  minute  when  compared  to  the  slovenly  ag- 
riculture of  the  Transvaal. 

If  a  stranger,  without  previous  knowledge,  wore  to 
inspect  the  I'ocr  Kcpnblii-s  from  a  balloon,  he  would 
conclude  llinl  he  was  in  a  land  of  Amcricui  cow-box  s. 
to  judge  from  the  arcliilectin-c  prevailing.  Tlic  sepa- 
ration of  the  Boer  from  bis  mother-country  is  much 
I   169  ] 


THE    CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

more  complete  than  the  separation  of  the  Cape  Town 
Englishman  from  the  Cape  Town  Dutchman.  One 
might  roughly  draw  an  analogy  by  saying  that  the 
American  from  Boston  has  more  in  common  with  an 
Englishman  than  with  a  cow-boy  of  Arizona,  or  an 
old-time  miner  of  California.  The  Bostonian  has 
propagated  on  American  soil  the  institutions  and 
social  forms  of  his  English  ancestors.  But  the  same 
American,  moving  into  the  Far  West,  is  compelled, 
for  the  sake  of  mere  existence,  to  improvise  a  new 
society,  new  means  of  self-protection,  and  even  new 
implements  for  his  daily  work.  One  generation  of 
such  life  has  produced  in  America  a  race  of  men  speak- 
ing a  slang  of  their  own;  familiar  with  Indian  and 
Mexican  peculiarities;  holding  a  strange  code  of  politi- 
cal if  not  of  moral  ethics;  full  of  violent  contrasts — 
bravery  and  bragging;  profanity  and  piety;  tender- 
ness and  cruelty;  generous  in  hospitality,  yet  hand- 
ling a  revolver  with  fatal  facility.  Place  the  American 
frontiersman  in  a  Boston  drawing-room  and  you  have 
a  contrast  no  less  startling  than  had  you  introduced 
a  Chinaman.  Introduce  the  conventional  Englishman 
of  education  into  the  same  drawing-room,  and  by 
comparison  the  difference  is  scarcely  worth  noting. 
The  Bostonian  and  the  man  of  London  will  have  a 
thousand  points  of  sympathetic  contact  in  literature, 
art,  municipal  problems,  social  evolution,  administra- 
tive reforms,  international  politics,  and  the  endless 
chain  of  interests  that  bind  together  the  great  com- 
mercial cities  of  the  world.  The  same  Bostonian 
would  listen  with  bulging  eyes  and  distracted  ears  to 
his  kinsman  from  the  foot-hills  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
[  170  ] 


THE   DUTCH   COLONIST   OF   TO-DAY 

tains.  He  would  marvel  at  a  jargon,  part  Spanish, 
part  Indian,  part  American;  an  etymology  and  gram- 
mar of  racy  recklessness,  and  a  range  of  ideas  wholly 
outside  of  anything  dreamed  of  in  the  academic  rou- 
tine of  our  venerable  colleges. 

The  same  contrast  is  afforded  by  a  study  of  the 
actual  Boer  of  Pretoria  and  the  actual  Dutchman  of 
Amsterdam  or  even  Cape  Town.  When  Paul  Kruger 
paid  his  first  visit  to  the  British  Governor-General  at 
the  Cape,  local  rumor  said  that  the  single  concession 
he  made  to  European  civilization  was  to  remove 
his  boots  when  invading  the  linen  sheets  of  his  host. 
This  story  is  not  necessarily  true,  but  its  currency  in 
Cape  Town  indicates  the  local  feeling  regarding  the 
relative  civihzation  of  the  Transvaal  Boer  and  the  old 
country  Dutch. 

At  the  Cape  I  recall  with  infinite  gratitude  a  Dutch 
Colonial  Dame — a  charming  widow — whose  house 
was  a  rendezvous  for  the  most  interesting  social  ele- 
ments, English  no  less  than  Dutch.  She  showed  me 
a  house  full  of  rare  Dutch  tiles  and  porcelain  ware, 
delicate  wood-carvings,  and  a  few  well-chosen  studies 
by  Dutch  masters.  She  spoke  French,  German,  and 
English  as  well  as  she  did  Dutch,  and  in  her  company 
it  seemed  that  I  was  in  the  house  of  an  Amsterdam 
merchant  prince,  rather  than  6,000  miles  away  among 
people  who  glory  in  the  name  of  Boer.  Her  service 
was  performed  by  tidily  uniformed  servants;  her  table 
appointments  left  nothing  to  be  desired. 

From  the  drawing-room  of  this  lady  to  that  of  the 
Governor-General  was  a  step  that  did  not  i)crccptil)ly 
change  one's  social  surroundings.    The  important  in- 

I    '/>    1 


THE  CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

habitants  of  Cape  Town,  whether  English  or  Dutch 
by  extraction,  viewed  social  and  even  political  obliga- 
tions from  very  much  the  same  point  of  view.  There 
was  a  general  consensus  of  opinion  that  on  the  whole 
the  English  Government  was  about  the  best  that  the 
colony  could  wish  and  that,  while  there  was  plenty 
of  occasion  for  grumbling  in  local  matters,  all  were 
practically  united  on  the  broad  question  of  the  flag 
that  was  to  dominate. 

The  Boer  of  Cape  Town  looked  upon  the  Boer  of 
the  Transvaal  as  a  species  of  anachronistic  cow-boy, 
who  had  his  rough  virtues,  but  must  perforce  yield 
to  the  advancing  tide  of  railway  progress.  The  idea 
that  South  Africa  should  ever  become  a  Dutch  com- 
munity under  Transvaal  leadership  was  no  more  seri- 
ously entertained  in  1896,  in  Cape  Town,  than  in 
America  that  the  government  should  pass  under  the 
yoke  of  Mormonism. 

In  the  parlors  of  Cape  Town,  Paul  Kruger  is  an 
anomaly  no  less  strange  than  the  Arizona  "  cow- 
puncher  "  in  a  Beacon  Street  Club.  Paul  Kruger 
represents  the  Boer  who  has  spent  his  life  in  an  ox- 
wagon;  to  whom  civilization  has  appeared  mainly  as 
a  constraint  upon  liberty.  Circumstances  have  forced 
him  now  to  live  under  a  roof,  and  to  conform  some- 
what to  the  habits  of  white  men  in  other  parts  of  the 
world,  but  all  this  he  does  with  manifest  reluctance 
and  to  the  smallest  possible  extent. 

When  I  first  had  the  honor  of  visiting  this  strange 

man,  he  had  outside  of  his  house  an  encampment  of 

mounted  burghers  by  way  of  military  escort;  at  the 

same  time  there  was  not  even  a  black  girl  to  open  his 

[  172  ] 


THE   DUTCH   COLONIST   OF   TO-DAY 

front  door.  His  house- was  not  merely  conspicuous  by 
its  shabbiness,  but  much  more  so  by  the  evidence  of 
neglect  on  the  part  of  its  occupiers.  It  looked  to  me 
as  though  the  President  wished  for  private  reasons  to 
advertise  his  indifference  to  civilized  habits,  in  the 
same  way  that  some  representatives  of  labor  think  it 
well  to  roll  up  their  shirt-sleeves  before  mounting  the 
platform. 

Paul  Kruger  at  the  head  of  the  Transvaal  in  1896 
was  as  strange  a  sight  as  Mr.  Richard  Croker  would 
be  as  President  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion. 

Holland  has  left  a  deep  impression  at  Cape  Town, 
but  her  footprints  can  be  scarcely  recognized  in  the 
alleged  Republic  beyond  the  Vaal  River. 

In  South  America  the  Dutch  had  once  a  grand 
colonial  opportunity  in  what  is  now  British  Guiana, 
a  colony  which  to-day,  in  spite  of  the  low  price  of 
sugar,  forms  an  important  element  of  the  English 
Colonial  Empire.  Demerara  is  a  clean  and  busy  town, 
cut  up  by  straight  canals  full  of  splendid  water-lilies, 
some  of  them  so  big  that  a  baby  could  float  away  on 
one.  Even  to-day,  though  the  Dutch  language  is  no 
longer  heard,  Dutch  law  prevails,  and  also  Dutch  tidi- 
ness and  Dutch  love  for  flower-gardens  and  canals. 
Under  British  auspices  and  freedom  British  Guiana 
has  made  progress,  but  Dutch  Guiana  next  door  has 
not  proved  so  successful,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  both 
colonies  have  practically  the  same  soil  and  climato.* 

♦  In  iX()o  iSrilisli  CJuinnaexiJortivl  to  tl>e  extent  of  more  tlian  $12,000,- 
000,  wliili;  tlic  exports  of  l)iittli  (luiana  amounted  to  less  than  $2,o<i(),- 
()()(>.  'I'lie  revenues  of  tli<;  lirilisli  colony  for  I Scjo  were  almost  $^, 000, 000, 
wliile  in  tli(r  n<i(.;lil)orin(;  I)iil(li  (nloiiy  tli<'y  w(Te  hut  $()I  7,001), 

Mn^^lisli  tms  iiraclically  driven  out  I  lie  Dulili  lani;ua^;e,  even  in  Dutclj 
Guiana. 

f    '7.^  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

While  at  Demerara,  the  present  Auditor  General, 
Mr.  Darnell  Davis,  expressed  himself  as  quite  satisfied 
with  Guiana  as  a  place  in  which  to  bring  up  white 
children,  and  he  pointed  to  many  instances  in  support 
of  his  statement.  He  himself  is  a  good  illustration  of 
the  fact  that  even  in  the  tropics  the  white  man  may 
develop  high  literary  activity. 

The  poverty  of  Dutch  Guiana  consisted  not  in  the 
fact  that  the  English  flag  supplanted  that  of  Holland, 
but  that  English  energy,  common-sense,  and  good 
government  took  the  place  of  an  administration  con- 
ceived in  the  spirit  of  monopoly. 

In  the  Far  East  to-day  the  Dutch  have  a  magnifi- 
cent empire,  but  administrative  short-sightedness  has 
done  much  to  limit  their  development  of  her  islands 
there. 

The  years  most  fortunate  for  Java  were  those  during 
the  Napoleonic  wars,  when  an  English  Governor  re- 
formed her  colonial  administration  in  the  spirit  of 
greater  commercial  liberty.  This  was  the  famous  Sir 
Stamford  Raffles,  the  founder  of  Singapore. 

When  the  English  surrendered  Java  in  1816,  even 
the  Dutch  Government  realized  that  it  could  not  re- 
turn wholly  to  the  antiquated  system  of  exclusion  that 
had  characterized  the  previous  administration,  and  an 
efifort  was  made  at  something  in  the  nature  of  a  com- 
promise. Reforms  were  tolerated  which  would  have 
seemed  revolutionary  in  the  seventeenth  century,  but 
which  in  our  own  seem  strangely  inadequate.  Slavery 
was  nominally  forbidden,  but  a  species  of  servitude 
existed  which  amounted  pretty  much  to  the  same 
thing.  The  whole  island  was  over-governed,  and  the 
[  174  ] 


THE   DUTCH   COLONIST   OF   TO-DAY 

administration  enconrag-ed  the  exploiting  of  the  col- 
ony for  the  white  official,  with  scant  regard  for  the 
colonist,  whether  white,  yellow,  or  brown.  Java  pre- 
sents to-day  a  magnificent  picture  of  superficially 
successful  colonization.  < 


T  T75  1 


XVI 

THE    BOER   AT    HOME 


"  The  struggle  {iJjd-IjSj)  zvas  a  revolt  against  the  whole 
mental  attitude  of  Britain  in  regard  to  America,  rather  than 
against  any  one  special  act  or  set  of  acts. ^^ — Roosevelt,  "  Win- 
ning of  the  West,"   I.,  p.  37. 

Domestic  Life  of  the  Boer  To-day — Comparison  between  South 
Africa  and  North  America 

THERE  are  Boers  and  Boers.  Here  is  mine. 
At  the  close  of  day,  shortly  after  the  Jame- 
son Raid,  we  reached  the  Caledon  River, 
which  separates  Basutoland  from  the  Orange  Free 
State.  The  river  was  swollen,  and  the  leaders  of  my 
Cape  cart  floundered  amidst  the  bowlders  at  the  bot- 
tom of  this  rapid  stream.  The  water  rose  above  the 
floor  of  our  vehicle,  and  for  a  moment  it  looked  as 
though  we  might  be  swept  away — horses,  wagon, 
baggage,  and  all.  While  matters  were  at  their  worst, 
there  appeared  on  the  other  side  of  the  stream  the 
figure  of  a  long-bearded  horseman,  one  arm  waving 
up  into  the  blazing  sunset  like  a  benevolent  semaphore 
to  a  ship  in  distress.  We  followed  his  mute  directions, 
and  soon  our  four  plucky  ponies  were  scrambling  up 
the  steep  bank — in  safety,  it  is  true,  yet  so  banged 
about  were  we  that,  after  escaping  disaster  by  water, 
it  looked  as  though  we  were  reserved  for  a  general 
smash  in  the  ruts  and  gullies  of  the  veldt. 
[  176  ] 


THE   BOER   AT   HOME 


It  was  a  venerable  Boer  who  had  signalled  us  to  a 
safe  crossing,  and  when  we  were  face  to  face  he  in- 
spected us  critically,  and  asked  the  usual  questions  as 
to  whence  we  had  come,  whither  we  were  going,  who 
we  were,  and  of  what  nation.  My  companion  was 
English,  I  was  American,  and  we  had  come  from 
breaking  bread  with  the  Governor  of  a  British  Pro- 
tectorate. The  Jameson  Raid  was  fresh  in  all  men's 
minds,  and  we  were  asking  hospitality  of  a  Boer.  He 
wasted  few  words,  gave  an  ambiguous  grunt  by  way 
of  telling  us  that  we  might  put  up  at  his  ranch,  and 
galloped  away  to  tell  his  wife  that  two  "  tenderfeet " 
were  on  the  way  and  she  must  grind  a  bit  more  coffee. 

So  we  steered  slowly  in  his  wake  across  country 
on  the  open  prairie,  along  a  trail  where  the  horses 
had  to  pick  their  way  as  they  would  in  the  foot-hills 
of  Colorado.  From  an  elevation  the  African  veldt 
seems  one  vast,  smooth  plain,  but  the  rider  feels  the 
gullies  and  other  pitfalls  which  may  break  his  springs 
or  his  horses'  legs,  albeit  too  insignificant  for  notice 
at  a  distance.  The  lonesome  prairie  was  relieved  here 
and  there  by  strange,  flat-topped,  isolated  mounds 
rising  straight  up  out  of  the  dead  level  of  endless 
desolation,  suggesting,  in  the  deep  glow  of  the  dying 
sun,  monster  coffins  resting  upon  a  burning  crust. 
The  effect  was  powerful,  for  in  Africa  the  sky  seems 
nearer,  the  stars  sliinc  more  intensely,  and  the  setting 
sun  burns  so  fiercely  that  (lie  sliadows  of  rocks  and 
square-topped  mountains  run  along  (o  the  eastward 
like  streams  of  H(|iiid  black,  'filings  far  away  seeniod 
close  at  hand,  and  it  was  a  long  stretch  of  bumping 
to  us  before  we  reached  (lie  cabin  whose  wreath  of 

f    ^77  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

smoke  from  the  hospitable  chimney  we  had  followed 
for  many  miles.  It  was  a  cold  reception  that  we  got, 
measured  by  the  forms  laid  down  at  dancing-school, 
but  so  far  as  practical  details  were  concerned  it  was 
beyond  praise.  The  long-bearded  Boer  fetched  his 
lantern  and  showed  us  a  shed  where  our  cattle  could 
find  shelter  for  the  night.  Of  course  we  did  the  man- 
ual work  ourselves,  in  which  we  had  silent  but  efifec- 
tive  assistance  from  our  host.  After  "  outspanning," 
rubbing  the  horses  down,  and  giving  them  a  good 
measure  of  oats  from  the  stores  of  our  host,  we  were 
led  to  the  pump,  where  we  washed  our  hands  before 
entering  the  house  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  his 
family. 

Anyone  who  has  seen  the  pioneer  ranchman's  home 
in  the  Wild  West  of  America  can  readily  picture  to 
himself  the  sort  of  home  a  Boer  farmer  would  have 
in  a  country  where  roads  and  even  bridges  are  want- 
ing; where  land  is  cheap  but  everything  else  is  dear; 
where  houses  are  many  miles  apart;  where  black  labor 
is  both  scarce  and  bad;  where  the  white  man  is 
thrown  upon  his  own  resources  to  an  extent  wholly 
unknown  in  Europe  or  the  settled  sections  of  America. 
These  surroundings  are  not  conducive  to  grand 
pianos,  billiard-tables,  oil  paintings,  or  even  books. 
No  postman  raps  at  the  ranch  door,  and  to  go  shop- 
ping means  the  loss  of  a  full  day  with  a  team  of  horses. 
Under  such  conditions  men  read  few  books,  but  they 
read  them  often;  small-talk  does  not  flourish,  but 
men's  minds  are  tempered  in  the  fire  of  silence  and 
concentrated  thought.  The  Boer  who  led  us  into  his 
house  had  come  to  this  country  as  a  child,  with  the 
[  178] 


THE   BOER   AT    HOME 


Great  Trek  of  1836;  his  ancestors  had  come  to  the 
Cape  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  that. 

As  he  opened  the  door  of  his  cabin  we  were  greeted 
by  his  stolid  and  rotund  wife  and  a  flaxen-haired  and 
very  pretty  daughter  about  eighteen  years  old.  They 
did  not  smile  or  tell  the  conventional  He  that  they  were 
delighted  to  see  us,  but  each  shook  hands  with  us  by 
way  of  letting  us  know  that  they  intended,  for  that 
night  at  least,  to  spare  us  the  discomfort  of  sleeping 
out  on  the  prairie. 

Nothing  was  said  on  either  side,  and  we  sat  on 
chairs  which  were  backed  up  against  the  wall,  while 
mother  and  daughter  laid  the  cloth — a  nice  clean  one 
— and  prepared  supper.  Several  rifles  were  on  pegs 
above  the  door;  some  pictures  taken  from  Christmas 
numbers  of  illustrated  weeklies  brightened  the  walls; 
there  was  a  vast,  florid,  old-fashioned  Dutch  clock, 
and  in  one  corner  of  the  room  an  American  parlor 
organ  of  very  small  size.  Among  the  few  books  were 
a  Dutch  Bible,  Longfellow's  poems,  and  a  Shake- 
speare, besides  a  few  books  on  cattle  diseases,  horse- 
breaking,  and  one  or  two  religious  books  whose  names 
I  forget.  Dutch  was  the  language  of  the  family,  but 
all  were  familiar  with  English  as  well.  Two  or  three 
young  Boers  joined  the  party,  and  these  also  sat 
silently  about  the  room,  much  as  though  it  was  a 
corpse  we  were  expecting,  instead  of  a  very  welcome 
supper. 

Slowly  the  I'oer  uiind  was  absorbing  us;  for  the 
Africander  gives  his  coiirHk'ncc  to  few,  and  whore  ho 
gives  it,  there  it  remains.  1  knew  them  well  enough 
to  know  that  this  process  of  mental  digestion  ought 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

not  to  be  disturbed,  so  I  played  Quaker  meeting  in  a 
manner  designed  to  create  the  impression  that  this 
was  exactly  the  sort  of  social  hilarity  to  which  I  was 
accustomed  at  home. 

The  supper  was  delicious;  there  was  plenty  of  milk 
and  bread,  meat,  and  stewed  fruit.  I  drank  about  a 
bucket  of  milk,  and  this  seemed  to  reassure  my  host, 
whose  idea  of  the  Outlander  was  of  one  who  required 
"  fire-water  "  with  his  food.  Of  course  there  was  cof- 
fee, which,  however,  I  did  not  touch.  As  the  meal 
progressed,  the  family  waxed  communicative,  and  the 
old  lady's  heart  softened  when  my  friend  informed  her 
that  I  had  not  merely  sung  in  the  choir  of  my  college, 
but  had  actually  experimented  once  with  Sunday- 
school  teaching.  From  that  moment  I  felt  that  the 
prodigal  son  could  give  me  no  further  points.  I  felt 
as  though  I  owned  the  place,  and  the  daughter  grew 
beautiful  as  she  became  unconscious  of  herself  and 
joined  in  the  chaff  and  laughter.  With  the  old  man  I 
talked  politics,  including  the  Jameson  Raid,  and  with 
the  daughter  I  sang  simple  songs — German  Volks- 
lieder  and  negro  melodies.  At  about  nine  o'clock  the 
long-bearded  Boer  pulled  the  great  Bible  from  its 
shelf,  and  with  a  deep,  earnest  voice  read  some  verses 
from  the  Old  Testament.  It  was  about  Joshua  smit- 
ing the  Outlanders  of  Palestine  and  fighting  savagely 
for  the  preserv^ation  of  a  peculiar  religion.  I  do  not 
know  whether  my  host  selected  this  particular  chapter 
for  the  benefit  of  his  guests,  or  whether  it  just  hap- 
pened that  we  came  in  for  a  text  which  appeared  to 
have  a  strange  significance  at  that  moment — for  had 
I  not  been  but  a  few  days  before  with  the  leaders  of 
[  i8o  ] 


THE   BOER   AT    HOME 


the  Oiitlander  movement? — all  of  them  jailed  up  in 
Pretoria ! 

After  the  Bible-reading,  a  hymn  was  sung-,  and  then 
the  whole  family  knelt  in  prayer,  following  the  strong 
words  of  this  grand  old  apostle  as  he  appealed  to  the 
throne  of  God  for  guidance  in  the  perplexities  of  life. 

This  is  the  Boer,  thought  I,  that  people  in  England 
do  not  see  much  of.  He  does  not  play  at  politics;  he 
does  not  button-hole  newspaper  men;  he  is  rarely 
heard  save  in  the  midst  of  his  family.  He  owns  no 
gold-mines,  and  is  happy  to  grow^  up  and  die  in  the 
peaceful  enjoyment  of  the  little  which  Providence  has 
allowed  him  to  have.  Such  men  love  peace — but  when 
they  fight  they  keep  at  it  a  long  time. 

That  night  I  slept  on  a  hard  bed,  but  it  was  clean, 
with  white  cotton  sheets.  The  fioor  of  my  bedroom 
was  mother  earth,  and  the  walls  and  ceiling  were 
rough  enough.  In  the  morning  a  towel  was  given  to 
me  and  the  neighborhood  of  the  pump  was  indicated 
— and  my  wash  was  none  the  worse  for  being  in  the 
open  air. 

There  was  plenty  of  roughness  in  these  Boers,  but 
no  coarseness.  Their  speech  was  elementary,  but  with 
them  I  felt  a  wholesome  nearness  to  nature  and  to 
things  real.  Civilization  is  a  j)olite  word  for  a  mon- 
strous mass  of  shams,  and  when  things  shall  be 
straightened  out  at  the  Judgment  Day,  I  make  no 
doubt  that  there  will  be  a  surprise  in  store  for  lluisc 
who  are  now  satisfied  lliat  they  arc  more  civilized  than 
my  Boer  friend  on  llic  borders  of  Basutoland. 

The  goofl  jicople  gave  us  C(jrfee  before  wc  started 
next  morning,  and  begged  us  to  stop  with  llieni  when 

I    "^'    I 


THE  CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

next  we  travelled  that  road.  We  tried  to  pay  for  our 
entertainment — the  mere  idea  was  an  offence  to  them. 
Of  course  we  paid  for  what  forage  our  four  horses  had 
consumed — that  was  quite  another  sort  of  transac- 
tion; but  so  far  as  the  inside  of  the  Boer's  house  was 
concerned,  we  entered  it  as  guests,  and  we  left  it  as 
members  of  his  family. 

I  have  been  the  guest  in  this  fashion  of  many  Boers 
— in  the  Transvaal  as  well  as  in  the  Orange  Free  State. 
There  may  be  worse  Boers  and  there  may  be  better. 
It  is  not  my  purpose  to  generalize — I  tell  merely  what 
I  saw. 


[  182  ] 


XVII 

THE    SCANDINAVIAN   COLONIST 

♦'  The  Tropics  will  become  more  ajid  more  the  source  of  food  supply 
for  the  zvorld.^' — ^Josiah  Strong,   "Expansion,"  p.  42,  ed. 
1900. 

Denmark  in  the  West  Indies — A  Canoe  Cruise  Round  St. 
Thomas — Negroes  in  Santa  Cruz 

DENMARK,  Norway,  and  Sweden — and  we 
ought  to  include  Finland  as  a  former  Swedish 
province,  though  not  of  Scandinavian  origin 
— these  countries  with  a  common  religion,  contigu- 
ous territory,  common  love  for  the  sea,  offer  some- 
thing of  a  paradox  in  colonial  history.  Each  of  these 
countries  sends  forth  each  year  a  large  number  of  her 
children  to  the  United  States,  where  they  command 
better  remuneration  than  those  of  any  other  nation. 
The  best  ships  of  the  world  are  glad  to  have  among 
their  crew  the  element  they  represent,  and  the  Nor- 
wegians have  almost  a  monopoly  in  the  manning  of 
American  yachts.  Throughout  the  world,  Scandina- 
vians are  met  with  wherever  men  are  required  who 
combine  personal  courage,  education,  and  lidclity. 
They  seem  to  have  all  the  virtues  which  fit  men  to 
ffjund  and  carry  on  colonics,  yet  (hey  have  none  of 
their  own  worth  mentioning. 

Norway,  which  has  shown   perhaps  the  least  ambi- 
I    '«.i  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

tion  to  possess  colonies,  is  a  practical  democracy  like 
Switzerland.  The  less  democratic  Denmark  and  the 
comparatively  aristocratic  Sweden  have  made  one  or 
two  efforts  of  insignificant  character.  " 

On  a  cruise  through  the  West  Indies,  not  long 
since,  I  fell  in  with  an  intelligent  and  prosperous 
Scotch  planter,  who  had  been  home  on  his  holiday  and 
was  returning  to  his  estates  on  the  Danish  island  of 
Santa  Cruz.-  Of  the  many  planters  I  had  met  among 
the  Antilles  he  was  one  of  the  few  w-ho  had  nothing 
to  complain  of,  yet  he  was  not  under  the  English  flag, 
and  was  on  an  island  which  had  suffered  by  the  aboli- 
tion of  slavery,  quite  as  much  as  any  other.  He  asked 
me  to  come  and  pay  him  a  visit,  promising  me  at 
the  same  time  that  I  should  on  the  spot  find  an  answer 
to  many  questions  which  vexed  me.  But  he  advised 
me  first  to  visit  St.  Thomas,  the  chief  Danish  island. 
So  we  parted  to  meet  again  in  a  few  weeks. 

At  St.  Thomas  I  unshipped  my  little  cruising  canoe 
for  a  circumnavigation — to  discover  what  there  was 
Danish  about  the  place.  There  was  a  little  pink  fort 
with  a  handful  of  fair-haired,  blue-eyed  soldiers  and 
officials,  some  working  in  a  vegetable  garden,  and 
evidently  strangers  in  the  place.  I  had  to  pay  a  tax 
of  $2  for  the  right  to  leave  the  harbor,  and  for  this  I 
got  a  pass  in  the  Danish  language.  But  aside  from 
this  there  was  scant  evidence  of  Scandinavian  influ- 
ence in  the  place. 

On  the  streets  were  English  signs,  and  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  had  stamped  his  impress  everywhere,  not  by 
act  of  government,  but  by  the  obvious  desire  of  the 
community.  At  the  boat-landing  I  accosted  a  vener- 
[  184] 


THE   SCANDINAVIAN   COLONIST 

able  negro  fisherman  for  particulars  about  the  coast. 
He  spoke  only  English;  told  me  his  name  was  "  Uncle 
Ned,"  and  offered  to  pilot  me  all  the  way  round,  to 
say  nothing  of  acting  as  steward,  cook,  or  general 
utility  man.  But  when  he  saw  my  craft,  which  had  a 
beam  of  thirty  inches  and  weighed  eighty  pounds  net, 
he  shook  his  woolly  head  solemnly,  and  said  that: 
"  De  good  God  won't  nebber  forgib  you  for  tempting 
Providence  in  dat  yere  fiddle-box." 

However,  his  love  of  praise  won  the  day,  and  he 
fitted  out  his  boat  with  $2-worth  of  bananas,  cocoa- 
nuts,  rice,  sugar,  chickens — in  fact  a  good  supply  for 
a  week.  It  was  worth  the  journey  to  see  Uncle  Ned 
throw  his  head  in  the  air,  and  patronize  his  fellow- 
blacks,  and  expatiate  upon  the  canoe,  which  he  de- 
scribed to  his  fellows  as  an  "  American  submarine 
torpedo  boat."  For  the  sake  of  peace  I  had  warned 
him  not  to  touch  it  for  fear  of  an  explosion,  and  even 
to-day  I  am  not  penitent  for  that  departure  from  truth. 

The  chief  port  of  St.  Thomas  is  the  ideal  refuge  for 
the  pirate  and  smuggler,  for  it  is  divided  by  a  long 
narrow  island,  the  land  end  of  which  is  separated  from 
the  main  island  by  such  shallow  water  that  only  coast- 
ing craft  can  get  from  one  side  to  the  other.  And 
thus  were  the  pursuing  men-of-war  decoyed  in  the 
olden  days.  They  chased  their  light-draught  enemy 
into  port  at  St.  Thomas,  and  while  they  followed  him 
in  on  one  side  of  the  long  narrow  dividing  island,  the 
cunning  freebooter  slipped  out  at  the  other  side,  by  a 
j)assage  impassable  to  a  man-of-war.  ( )ut  through 
this  channel  I  went,  and  I  could  lake  soundings  with 
my  double -bladed  paddle. 


THE  CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

Uncle  Ned  was  right — Providence  took  her  re- 
venge— and  a  squall  capsized  the  canoe.  But  no  harm 
was  done,  for  she  was  righted  again  and  finished  the 
circumnavigation.  Each  night  we  slept  out  in  our 
respective  boats,  and  Uncle  Ned  proved  himself  a 
master-cook,  particularly  with  boiled  chicken  and  rice 
stewed  up  with  a  species  of  curry  sauce.  This  black 
man  watched  over  me  as  though  I  had  been  his  baby, 
and  over  a  camp-fire,  on  the  edge  of  a  coral  reef,  he 
gave  vent  to  his  aspirations,  which  were  to  be  an  Eng- 
lishman under  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  As  to  the  de- 
tails of  this  proposition,  he  was  not  particular — his 
political  philosophy  went  no  further  than  observing 
that  English  and  Americans  spoke  the  same  language, 
had  money  to  spend,  and  gave  the  negro,  on  the  whole, 
a  pretty  good  time.  As  to  the  Dane,  Uncle  Ned  bore 
him  no  ill-will,  but,  from  his  point  of  view,  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  brought  prosperity. 

My  cruise  was  instructive  in  so  far  as  it  proved,  at 
least  to  my  own  satisfaction,  the  very  small  impression 
produced  in  this  place  by  a  government  representing 
one  of  the  most  vigorous  branches  of  the  European 
family. 

Denmark  has  been  for  many  years  ready  to  sell 
this  island  to  the  United  States,  and  at  one  time 
(1870)  General  Grant  had  arranged  the  purchase  for 
$7,000,000.  The  Danish  King  published  a  pathetic 
farewell  address  to  his  loyal  and  dearly  beloved  sub- 
jects in  the  West  Indies.  The  bargain  was  on  the 
point  of  being  consummated,  and  the  loyal  subjects 
had  become  scandalously  jubilant  over  the  prospect 
of  ceasing  to  be  Danish,  when  the  American  Senate 
[  186  ] 


THE   SCANDINAVIAN   COLONIST 

refused  consent,  and  the  West  Indian  blacks  who  had 
bought  American  flags  furled  them  up  against  a  bet- 
ter day. 

Let  us  recall  also  that  two  centuries  ago  the  Great 
Elector  of  Brandenburg,  whose  descendant  now  oc- 
cupies the  Imperial  Throne  of  Germany,  colonized  St. 
Thomas.  Of  this  occupation  I  could  find  no  visible 
trace  in  1890. 

The  Danish  Government  has  not  succeeded  in  the 
West  Indies — it  has  made  its  colonial  experiment,  and 
is  now  quite  willing  that  others  should  take  over  the 
unprofitable  venture.  Had  she  many  islands  like  Eng- 
land, things  might  have  turned  out  better,  for  the  cost 
of  administration  would  not  have  been  relatively  so 
heavy.  Many  of  England's  islands  are  unprofitable, 
but  she  has  so  many  successful  ones  that  she  can  afford 
a  few  failures.  Her  operations  may  be  compared  to 
those  of  a  great  steamship  company  which  can  afford 
to  have  a  wreck  now  and  then  and  treat  her  losses 
with  equanimity.  Denmark  is  in  the  position  of  a  ship- 
ping firm  with  but  one  or  two  vessels — the  loss  of  one 
means  almost  ruin. 

From  a  commercial  point  of  view  it  is  desirable  that 
all  the  West  Indian  islands  be  under  one  flag.  The 
territories  are  so  small,  that  one  governor  and  staff 
could  do  the  work  now  laid  upon  several.  A  judge 
to-day  could  hold  court  in  several  islands,  whore  in 
past  times  the  absence  of  steam  would  have  made  such 
an  operation  difficult — not  to  say  dangerous.  It  is 
England  which  to-day  gives  the  most  satisfactory 
government  in  llic  West  Indies,  and,  speaking  purely 
from  the  stand-point  of  jjolitical  economy,  it  is  rcason- 

I    >«7   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

able  to  think  that  the  colonists  of  the  French,  Dutch, 
Danish,  and  Swedish  West  Indies  would  be  better  off, 
as  planters  and  merchants,  for  a  change  to  the  Union 
Jack.  Aside  from  England,  the  French  islands  of 
Martinique  and  Guadeloupe  are  the  only  ones  in  which 
the  home  government  has  made  a  deep  impression  by 
means  of  religion  and  language,  but  not  so  deep  but 
that  the  colonists  would  very  soon  be  satisfied  with 
an  administration  that  cost  them  less  money,  guaran- 
teed them  local  liberty  in  the  way  of  language  and  re- 
ligion, and,  better  than  all,  promised  them  a  better 
market  for  their  produce. 

Since  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  the  adoption  of 
free  trade  in  England,  the  English  West  Indies  have 
not  been  prosperous — indeed  many  plantations  have 
been  abandoned  completely.  No  doubt  the  past  gen- 
eration of  planters  grew  up  with  bad  business  methods 
— they  expected  that  sugar  would  always  remain  high, 
they  lived  too  much  away  from  their  estates,  and  no 
business  can  prosper  that  does  not  receive  personal 
attention.  The  price  of  sugar  went  down,  and  there 
was  not  on  hand  a  breed  of  planters  qualified  to  meet 
the  new  economic  situation  created  by  bounties  to 
beet-root  sugar  on  the  continent  of  Europe.  The  es- 
tates were  mortgaged — new  machinery  was  not  used, 
and  planters  trusted  to  a  change  of  luck  rather  than 
to  their  own  efiforts. 

Then  to  aggravate  a  situation  already  bad  enough, 
the  official  administration  was  very  costly — even 
though  efficient.  A  little  West  India  island  with  no 
more  territory  than  a  big  farm  and  no  revenue  worth 
mentioning,  was  weighted  with  an  official  stafT  that 
[  i88  ] 


THE   SCANDINAVIAN    COLONIST 

would  have  sufficed  for  an  East  Indian  state  as  large 
as  France — and  equally  populous. 

Little  impoverished  islands  persisted  in  living  as 
though  they  expected  each  day  a  restoration  of  their 
pristine  importance.  They  had  lost  much  of  their  com- 
mercial as  well  as  their  strategic  value  in  the  eyes  of 
the  mother-country,  and  were,  consequently,  regarded 
as  merely  tiresome  when  they  persisted  in  complaints 
for  redress.  The  British  press  was  too  busy  chroni- 
cling progress  at  the  Antipodes  in  Africa  and  India 
to  give  much  time  to  a  question  that  was  very  compli- 
cated, and  promised  to  excite  very  little  public  interest. 

And  so  it  happens  that  the  British  West  Indies  to- 
day look  less  to  London  for  prosperity,  and  more  to 
New  York.  What  the  Briton  wants  is  liberty  and  self- 
government.  He  will  take  a  plantation  in  Sumatra 
or  a  ranch  in  Texas,  so  long  as  his  rights  are  respected 
and  there  are  prospects  of  doing  well.  So  far  as  the 
West  Indies  are  concerned,  he  will  settle  in  Cuba  as 
cheerfully  as  in  Jamaica.  No  man  moves  his  domicile 
so  easily  as  does  the  Anglo-Saxon — and  no  man  holds 
so  tightly  to  his  nationality.  If  the  Anglo-Saxon 
drifts  readily  to  the  British  flag,  it  is  because  that  flag- 
represents  liberty  and  good  government.  He  settles 
under  other  flags  whenever  they  promise  him  equal 
advantages. 


i8<) 


XVIII 

SOME   NOTES    FROM  THE   DANISH   WEST 
INDIES  MADE  IN  SANTA  CRUZ 

"  We  {the  United  States)  could  not  view  an  interposition  for 
oppressing  them  {the  Spanish- American  Republics')  or  controlling  in 
any  other  manner  their  destiny,  by  any  European  power,  in  any  other 
light  than  as  a  manifestation  of  an  utfriendly  disposition  towards  the 
United  States.  .  .  .  The  American  continents  should  no  longer 
be  subjects  for  any  new  European  colonial  settlements.^''  [Presi- 
dent Monroe,    1822.] 

Influence  of  English    Language — A   Successful    Planter — How  to 
Treat  the  Blacks 

ON  the  night  of  February  9,  1889.  after  a  day 
in  St.  Thomas,  I  jumped  into  my  canoe  Carib- 
hee  and  paddled  off  to  a  rakish-looking  fore- 
and-aft  schooner  of  forty-nine  tons  bound  for  Santa 
Cruz,  another  Danish  island.  The  night  was  lighted 
by  brilliant  stars.  The  moon,  young  but  precocious, 
like  most  things  in  the  tropics,  shone  upon  the  well- 
flattened  sails  of  the  schooner  as  strongly  as  would 
a  full-grown  moon  in  our  less  luxuriant  north. 

The  rakish-looking  craft  was  the  Vigilant — famous 
not  merely  by  reason  of  her  great  age,  but  as  having 
achieved  renown  in  the  various  roles  of  pirate,  pri- 
vateer, slaver,  man-of-war,  and  lastly,  mail  packet. 
Although  it  was  recorded  that  she  was  built  in  Bal- 
timore in  1790,  she  is  to-day  one  of  the  fastest  boats 
[   190  ] 


NOTES   FROM   DANISH   WEST   INDIES 

of  her  sire  in  these  waters,  making  her  forty-mile  run 
from  port  to  port  usually  in  four  hours,  and  with  the 
punctuality  of  a  steamer.  She  is  of  great  beam,  and 
illustrates  how  the  principles  governing  ship-building 
in  the  last  century  differed,  in  the  United  States,  but 
little  from  those  of  to-day.  On  remarking  to  the 
negro  captain  upon  the  perfect  manner  in  which  his 
sails  set,  he  told  me  that  they  were  of  cotton  and  made 
in  New  York.  This  Vigilant  is  much  of  a  pet  in  Carib- 
bean waters,  and  her  captain  is  as  proud  of  his  Httle 
craft  as  any  North  Atlantic  skipper  of  his  18,000 
tonner.  Before  I  had  been  an  hour  on  board  pas- 
sengers and  crew  had  laid  before  me  the  fullest  evi- 
dence, direct  and  circumstantial,  touching  the  polit- 
ical, social,  and  historical  value  of  the  Vigilant.  The 
Danish  Governor  always  travelled  in  her  when  visiting 
Santa  Cruz,  and  occupied  usually  the  middle  "  Dog 
House  "  on  the  starboard  side.  Lest  it  be  assumed 
that  kennels  are  here  substituted  for  cabins,  let  me 
explain  that  the  term  "  Dog  House  "  is  applied  to 
a  species  of  chicken-coop  about  six  feet  long,  thirty 
inches  wide  and  thirty-six  inches  high,  in  which  the 
most  favored  of  the  passengers  spend  the  night.  These 
sleeping-boxes  arc  lashed  securely  to  the  poop  rail, 
and  form  six  sleeping  compartments  of  the  most  desir- 
able kind,  owing  to  the  ventilation  secured  by  means 
of  lattice  work,  which  faces,  of  course,  away  from  the 
rail.  The  schooner  provides  a  mattress,  two  little  pil- 
lows, and  a  sheet;  passengers  are  not  expected  to  un- 
dress l)eyond  slijjping  off  their  shoes  and  coat,  the 
latter  being  then  thnnvn  about  the  .shoulders.  Lying 
thus  in  a  "  Dog  liou.sc,"  as  in  a  palan(|uin,  one  can 
chat  with  tlu-  capt.iiii  milil  sleep  comes,  oi'  bi-  enter- 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

tained  by  observing  how  the  vessel  is  worked,  for  the 
sliding  doors  can  be  opened  to  such  an  extent  as  to 
give  one  the  feeling  of  sleeping  on  the  deck,  protected 
by  a  wooden  canopy  on  three  sides. 

In  1825  the  J^'igilant  first  took  her  place  in  history. 
It  seems  that  the  Danish  Government  had  despatched 
a  war-vessel  to  hunt  down  a  Spanish  pirate  who  made 
a  business  of  cruising  between  St.  Thomas  and  Porto 
Rico,  much  to  the  discouragement  of  honest  sailors 
trading  in  these  waters.  But  the  clumsy  Danish  war- 
rior was  too  big  and  too  slow  to  follow  the  Spaniard 
in  the  intricate  channels  and  over  the  shallows  which 
the  pirate  knew  by  heart,  and  people  began  to  lose 
faith  in  the  power  of  the  Danish  Navy  to  protect  them. 
In  this  hour  of  darkness,  however,  as  on  most  occa- 
sions of  the  same  kind,  a  young  deliverer  sprang  up 
in  the  shape  of  a  gallant  Danish  of^cer,  who  submitted 
a  scheme  for  beating  this  Spanish  freebooter  at  his 
own  game.  Picking  out  thirty  men  with  a  taste  for 
the  sport,  he  sailed  away  from  Santa  Cruz  with  this 
same  little  forty-nine-tonner,  and  in  a  few  hours 
sighted  the  pirate.  The  Vigilant  was,  of  course,  mis- 
taken for  a  merchantman,  as  she  sailed  along  the 
mountainous  shores  of  St.  Thomas,  keeping  her  crew 
well  out  of  sight,  and  raising  in  the  Spaniard's  mind 
the  prospect  of  a  short  and  easy  struggle.  Local  his- 
tory says  that  when  the  pirate  ran  alongside  and 
her  crew  were  in  the  act  of  boarding,  the  gallant  Norse- 
men sprang  up  as  one  man  and  delivered  a  volley  so 
galling  that  the  enemy  was  demoralized  and  routed, 
with  slaughter  so  great  that  the  Spanish  deck  ran  with 
blood  for  several  minutes  after  the  fight  was  done. 

From  this  time  on  the  Vigilant  has  never  ceased  to 
[   192  ] 


NOTES   FROM   DANISH    WEST    INDIES 

be  highly  respectable,  and  has  entwined  herself  to  such 
a  degree  in  the  affections  of  the  people,  that  when,  in 
1876,  she  disappeared  in  eleven  fathoms  of  water  by 
reason  of  a  hurricane,  nothing  would  do  but  have  her 
fished  up  and  once  more  sent  shuttling  up  and  down 
between  St.  Thomas  and  Santa  Cruz — a  journey  she 
makes  so  regularly  and  methodically  as  to  give  rise  to 
a  plausible  superstition,  that  she  finds  her  own  way 
over  the  intervening  forty  miles  without  compass, 
chart,  or  rudder,  and  that  she  would  speedily  pass  into 
dissolution  should  any  irreverent  owner  seek  to  force 
her  to  run  elsewhere  than  on  her  present  route. 

My  fare  between  the  two  islands  was  $2.50,  or  ten 
shillings,  which  included  the  use  of  one  of  the  dog 
houses.  Even  at  this  price  I  am  told  that  the  packet 
would  not  pay  expenses  but  for  a  government  mail 
subsidy.  In  addition  to  the  fare,  each  passenger  is 
forced  to  get  a  passport  at  a  charge  of  thirty-two 
cents,  a  strange  rule  when  it  is  remembered  that  both 
islands  are  under  the  same  governor. 

At  nine  o'clock  of  the  morning  following  my  arrival 
in  Christianstaedt,  I  took  my  seat  in  the  "  Royal  Dan- 
ish Mail  Coach,"  for  a  ride  of  about  twelve  miles,  to 
visit  my  Scotch  friend. 

The  custom-house  flanked  one  side  of  the  square 
from  which  wc  started.  Close  to  this  was  a  miniature 
fortress  j)ainted  pink,  opposite  to  which  was  the  Carib- 
bean Sea.  To  get  my  ticket  for  the  mail  I  went  be- 
fore a  flaxcn-haircd  Danish  official,  who  pocketed  a 
dollar,  and  in  return  stamped  me  a  piece  of  cardboard 
entitling  me  to  a  scat.  Of  the  West  Indies  no  islands 
can  show  cleaner  towns,  more  polite  negroes,  or  bet- 
ter evidences  of  g(jod  gwvcnnncnt  than  those  of  Den- 
I    I'M   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

mark.  Despotism  is  the  rule,  but  it  is  the  despotism 
of  a  gentle  master  rather  than  that  of  an  "  overseer." 
Its  laws  read  as  though  conceived  in  the  dark  ages, 
but  being  applied  with  intelligence  and  promptness, 
they  excite  little  dissatisfaction.  Responsibilities  are 
laid  upon  planters,  such  as  inspecting  highways,  pre- 
venting smuggling,  taking  a  part  in  legislation,  bur- 
dens not  only  heavy  in  themselves,  but  carrying  penal- 
ties with  them  if  neglected;  yet  my  Scotch  friend,  who 
had  lived  here  thirty-three  years,  defended  the  laws 
most  stoutly  as  being  the  foundation  of  what  pros- 
perity they  enjoyed. 

He  is  full  of  energy  and  good  sense.  He  applies  to 
his  planting  principles  common  in  other  industrial 
pursuits,  and  consequently  has  little  fault  to  find. 
Every  other  year  he  makes  a  run  to  Europe  for  seven 
or  eight  months,  by  this  means  invigorating  both 
body  and  mind,  so  as  to  resist  the  efifect  which  per- 
petual summer  is  apt  to  have  upon  even  the  strongest 
constitutions.  He  is  reputed  rich,  his  estate  bears  at 
least  evidence  that  he  is  not  in  need  of  capital;  he 
understands  his  people,  and  they  in  turn  bear  good- 
will in  their  eyes  when  they  see  him;  he  understands 
thoroughly  the  laws  under  which  he  lives  and  accepts 
with  cheerfulness  the  varied  duties  which  the  Danish 
Government  forces  upon  him.  Especially  does  he  se- 
lect for  praise  the  statute  which  places  a  heavy  tax, 
some  $700  a  year,  I  think,  upon  those  who  attempt  to 
play  the  role  of  absentee  landlord.  Much  of  the  pros- 
perity of  Santa  Cruz  my  friend  traced  to  the  fact  that 
the  estates  are  blessed  with  the  presence  of  those  who 
own  them;  that  these  owners  are  not  able  to  foist  their 
local  responsibilities  upon  mercenary  agents;  that  the 

[  194  ] 


NOTES   FROM   DANISH   WEST   INDIES 

negroes  are  in  daily  contact  with  the  men  most  deeply 
concerned  in  the  welfare  of  the  island,  and  conse- 
quently less  apt  to  suffer  from  neglect  or  harshness. 
To  this  absentee  law  my  Scotch  friend  attributed  the 
fact  that  no  other  of  the  West  Indies  could  show  so 
healthy  a  state  of  feeling  between  black  and  white  as 
Santa  Cruz. 

The  negro,  thought  my  friend,  must  not  be  bullied, 
neither  must  he  be  given  a  free  rein.  You  must  have 
your  orders  strictly  carried  out,  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  you  must  be  considerate  in  framing  these  orders. 
When  the  black  mother  is  nursing  her  child,  and  the 
father  has  a  sore  foot,  then  is  the  time  to  visit  them 
and  show  kindly  feeling.  The  negro  cares  less  for 
money  than  the  white  man,  but  attaches  greater  im- 
portance to  sentiment. 

The  Royal  Danish  Mail  Coach  had  its  of^cial  char- 
acter stamped  behind  in  Scandinavian  script,  and  be- 
fore starting  the  mail-bags  were  carefully  locked  into 
the  rear  box  by  a  fair-haired  officer  of  the  Government. 
A  few  limp-looking  soldiers  belonging  to  the  pink 
fort  across  the  way,  continued  to  throw  over  the  scene 
a  suggestion  of  Danish  rule  in  the  Caribbean  Sea, 
which  suggestion  might  easily  have  been  strength- 
ened by  the  presence  of  a  Danish  uniform  on  the  box 
seat.  But  our  driver  was  not  even  a  Dane;  worse  than 
that,  he  could  speak  not  a  word  of  vScandinavian,  was 
black  as  tar,  and  looked  as  though  just  from  a  Caro- 
lina cotton-ficld. 

With  a  crack  of  his  long-lashed  "  bull-w  hacker,"  our 
vehicle  left  the  pretty  s(|iiare;  and  llaxi'u  soldiers,  ofli- 
cials,  i)iiik  fori,  and  ihc  vision  of  I  )fiiiii;u"K'  imincili- 
ately  faded  along  with  I  hem.    (  )nr  "  Royal  Mail  "  was 

L  '%  ] 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  NATIONS 

a  Yankee  "  rockaway  "  country  wagon;  our  team  was 
made  up  of  one  little  mule  and  one  horse  to  match; 
no  one  that  we  met  spoke  anything  but  English;  the 
currency  was  dollars  and  cents;  the  plantations  that 
we  passed  were  for  the  most  part  owned  by  English, 
Irish,  and  Scotch,  and  the  local  names  had  little  in 
them  to  suggest  any  but  British  or  American  owner- 
ship. 

Our  black  driver  of  the  Royal  Postwagon  told  me 
about  the  general  riot  in  1878,  in  which  the  blacks 
gutted  the  towns  and  burnt  most  of  the  plantations — 
not,  so  far  as  I  could  gather,  from  any  conspiracy, 
but  rather  from  a  universal  feeling  of  being  unjustly 
treated,  which  needed  only  a  little  rum,  a  little  mob, 
and  a  little  talk,  to  develop  into  a  little  riot  for  whose 
suppression  the  little  Danish  garrison  proved  totally 
inadequate. 

This  riot  was  the  legitimate  outgrowth  of  one  in 
1848,  which  ran  its  course  much  in  the  same  way  and 
marks  the  year  in  which  slavery  was  abolished  in  the 
Danish  West  Indies.  The  abolition  of  slavery,  how- 
ever, did  little  for  the  comfort  of  the  blacks,  for  the  law 
compelled  them  to  work  for  ten  cents  a  day  and  to 
remain  under  yearly  contracts  at  that  rate  on  their 
respective  estates.  They  had  some  of  the  appearance 
of  making  their  own  bargains,  but,  practically,  were 
little  better  off  than  before,  although  the  estates 
furnished  them  privileges  that  represented  more  than 
their  wages,  such  as  free  hospital  service,  the  right  to 
keep  pigs,  chickens,  and  cows  at  the  expense  of  their 
employer,  the  right  to  cut  cane  for  themselves,  as  well 
as  some  much-prized  rum  and  cane-juice.  Added  to 
[  196  ] 


NOTES   FROM   DANISH   WEST    INDIES 

this  the  old  people  were  looked  after  so  long  as  they 
lived. 

The  riots  of  1848  abolished  slavery  in  name;  in 
1878  the  riots  led  to  the  abolition  of  fixed  rates  of 
pay  and  annual  contract,  leaving  the  negro  free  to 
sell  his  labor  in  the  highest  market,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  releasing  the  employer  from  many  expensive 
burdens  which  formerly  accompanied  the  forced-ser- 
vice system.  To-day  the  negro  can  claim  no  wages, 
he  must  take  what  is  offered,  and  the  employer,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  freed  from  the  necessity  of  providing 
what  may  be  called  "  Extras  "  for  his  hands.  The 
whites  in  1878  thought  they  were  ruined.  The  blacks 
thought  the  day  of  jubilee  had  come.  It  soon  tran- 
spired that  the  planters  had  joined  in  a  labor  "  pool," 
binding  themselves  to  pay  but  twenty  cents  a  day; 
and  the  blacks  wakened  from  their  riotous  debauch 
to  find  that  while  their  wages  seemed  larger  in  coin, 
they  were  smaller  when  measured  by  the  comforts 
procured  by  a  day  of  labor. 

My  Scotch  friend  was  wise  as  well  as  energetic,  and 
while  he  paid,  of  course,  only  the  wages  agreed  upon 
by  the  Planters'  Union,  he  managed  to  secure  at  the 
hands  of  his  black  workingmen  and  women,  good 
work  cheerfully  performed.  And  the  reasons  were — 
first,  he  looked  after  them  well,  saw  that  their  cabins 
did  not  leak,  and  that  tlicir  little  grievances  were 
promptly  attended  to.  Secondly,  he  allowed  them  lit- 
tle indulgences  in  iIk-  line  of  sugar-juice,  rum,  free 
pasture,  right  oi  trading,  etc.,  so  that  the  wages  on  his 
plantation  represented,  according  to  his  calculation, 
a  trifle  over  thirty  cents  a  day, 

I    107  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

The  negro  needs  guidance,  for  he  is  an  imitator;  he 
needs  sympathy,  for  he  lacks  the  power  to  stand  alone, 
and,  like  most  children,  he  needs  at  times  parental 
correction  to  remind  him  that  authority  is  lodged  in 
superior  intelligence.  Unite  these  forces,  as  in  Santa 
Cruz,  and  you  have  a  black  population  in  whose  midst 
the  white  man  can  enjoy  life.  On  the  other  hand, 
throw  them  over  to  a  caricature  of  parliamentary  gov- 
ernment as  in  Hayti,  and  you  produce  a  black  people 
not  pleasing  to  any  well-wisher  of  the  race. 

I  saw  in  town  here  a  document  which  suggests  that 
the  blacks  of  bygone  days  must  have  been  "  hard 
cases,"  indeed,  if  the  laws  touching  their  punishment 
bear  any  relation  to  their  disposition  to  sin.  In  1733 
a  placard  was  issued  by  the  Royal  Council  affecting 
Danish  islands,  from  which  I  copied  these  provisions: 

1.  The  leader  of  runaway  slaves  shall  be  pinched 
three  times  with  red-hot  iron,  and  then  hung. 

2.  Each  other  runaway  slave  shall  lose  one  leg,  or  if 
the  owner  pardon  him,  shall  lose  one  ear,  and  receive 
one  hundred  and  fifty  stripes. 

3.  Any  slave  being  aware  of  the  intention  of  others 
to  run  away  and  not  giving  information,  shall  be 
burned  in  the  forehead  and  receive  one  hundred 
stripes.     .     .     . 

9.  One  white  person  shall  be  sufificient  witness 
against  a  slave;  and  if  a  slave  be  suspected  of  a  crime, 
he  can  be  tried  by  torture    .    .    .    etc. 

The  mild  rule  under  which  the  Santa  Cruz  blacks 

now  earn  their  thirty  cents  a  day,  may  lead  them  to 

look  upon  such  provisions  of  law  as  intended  merely  to 

frighten,  never  to  be  put  into  execution;   and  let  us 

[  198  ] 


NOTES   FROM   DANISH   WEST   INDIES 

hope  that  these  bloody  laws  were  never  called  into 
use.  But  such  as  they  are,  they  illustrate  here,  as 
similar  ones  did  in  the  Southern  States  of  North 
America,  what  brutal  instincts  are  aroused  by  such  an 
institution  as  slavery.  And  all  the  more  striking  is 
this  illustration  when  we  remember  that  the  men  who 
made  these  cruel  ordinances  were  descended  from  the 
liberty-loving  Norsemen,  the  men  who  planted  the 
seed  of  self-government  in  every  country  that  now 
enjoys  its  blessings.  A  young  Danish  physician 
named  Isert,  who  visited  Santa  Cruz  in  1787,  tells  in 
his  diary  how  a  slave  belonging  to  a  neighbor  had 
broken  some  article  of  household  use;  that  to  punish 
him  for  this  offence  his  mistress  ordered  him  stripped 
naked  and  hung  up  by  his  wrists  to  a  nail.  She  then 
took  a  needle,  and  for  the  space  of  one  hour  amused 
herself  by  slowly  passing  it  in  and  out  of  all  parts  of 
his  flesh,  while  the  poor  devil  shrieked  until  the  neigh- 
borhood could  no  longer  endure  the  sound,  and  the 
tigress  was  by  them  induced  to  give  up  her  sport. 

What  Isert  saw  in  Santa  Cruz  in  the  nature  of 
cruelty  to  slaves  surpasses  anything  in  "  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin,"  and  must  have  made  his  book  very  unwelcome 
to  the  planters  of  that  island.  He  tells  of  slaves  that 
were  flogged  until  their  flesh  broke,  when  the  wounds 
would  be  rubbed  with  pepper  and  salt,  leaving  behind 
them  pains  as  cnrluring  as  they  were  acute,  and  scars 
that  went  with  thcni  to  llicir  last  day  on  earth.* 

•Governor  Iverson  was  tlie  first  rc[)rcscnf!itivc  of  D.-inish  .luthority  in 
fliuse  islands.  In  l')72,  the  year  lie  arrived,  he  issued  rules  for  the 
ynwi-ruinful  of  his  islaniis  that  leave  no  doubt  as  to  his  ideas  of  per- 
sonal autliorily  and  acconnlaliility.  I'-vcn  then,  there  was  ihe  little  pink 
fort  to  which  all  came  who  wanted  a  passport.      The  fine  for  leaving  the 

I    I')';  I 


THE  CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

On  reaching  the  half-way  point  of  our  journey,  a 
shady  spot,  we  handed  our  team  to  a  cheery  black 
hostler,  who  in  return  gave  us  his  fresh  pair.  On  again 
we  went,  the  bull-whacker  cracking  about  the  little 
beasts  as  it  probably  cracked  fifty  years  ago  about  the 
father  of  the  present  driver.  It  is  on  this  account, 
perhaps,  that  negroes  show  such  delight  in  cracking 
whips,  even  when  no  animal  is  in  sight.  In  Antigua 
I  noticed  that  the  old  negress  who  acted  as  overseer 
to  a  party  of  black  girls  in  the  field  carried  in  her 
hand  a  long  lash  fastened  to  a  handle  as  long  as  one's 
arm.  She  vociferated  energetically,  urged  them  to 
their  work  by  loud  threats  and  wordy  encouragement 
— acted  at  times  to  me  as  though  she  meant  to  lay  the 
lash  across  the  backs  of  one  of  her  people — but  the 
owner  of  the  plantation  assured  me  that  her  lash  was 
regarded  by  herself  and  her  co-workers  as  merely  em- 
blematic of  office. 

My  twelve  miles  seemed  short,  and  in  due  time  I 
was  deposited  with  my  luggage  at  a  cross  road  where 
my  friend's  Yankee  buggy  awaited  me,  for  the  mile 
or  so  to  his  house.  The  road  through  the  length  of 
Santa  Cruz,  that  is  to  say,  fifteen  miles,  is  macadam- 
ized, of  good  width  and  sheltered  by  a  succession  of 

island  then  was  five  hundred  pounds  of  tobacco,  and  the  man  who 
assisted  the  fugitive  was  made  responsible  for  all  his  debts.  But  Iverson 
was,  for  all  that,  a  God-fearing  man,  for  he  ordered  all  his  Danish  sub- 
jects, under  penalty  of  twenty-five  pounds  of  tobacco,  to  attend  divine 
worship,  in  the  little  pink  fort,  every  Sunday  morning  ;  nor  did  he  ex- 
cept foreigners,  for  they  suffered  the  same  penalty  if  they  did  not  turn 
up  at  the  afternoon  service. 

In  those  days  every  householder  was  bound,  on  a  penalty  of  one  hun- 
dred pounds  of  tobacco,  to  "keep  in  his  house,  for  himself  and  every 
man  in  his  service,  a  sword  with  a  belt,  and  a  gun  with  sufficient  powder 
and  ball." 

[    200    ] 


NOTES   FROM   DANISH    WEST    INDIES 

graceful  cocoa-nut  trees  whose  tops  wave  in  the  trade- 
wind  as  though  fanning  the  traveller  below.  From 
this  main  road,  a  smaller  but  equally  well-laid  one 
led  through  field  after  field  of  tall  rich  sugar-cane,  to 
Litchfield  plantation.  When  I  first  saw  the  cane,  I 
was  reminded  of  Indian  corn  (maize),  the  cane  being, 
however,  more  luxuriant  in  foliage.  Each  in  its  way 
is  the  noblest  product  of  its  respective  latitude,  and 
neither,  I  am  sure,  can  feel  hurt  at  the  family  resem- 
blance to  which  I  refer. 

My  Scotch  friend  received  me  at  the  steps  and  led 
me  into  the  broad  hall-way  of  his  home,  through  which 
one  looked  to  the  south  over  the  Caribbean  Sea,  and 
to  the  northward  toward  the  volcanic  peaks  that  face 
the  Atlantic.  Through  all  the  rooms  of  the  house 
passed  the  air  in  gentle  circulation,  giving  refreshing 
sleep  at  night,  that  blessing  which  makes  any  heat  by 
day  supportable.  Life  on  a  plantation  is  comparatively 
dull  save  to  one  interested  in  the  working  of  it,  and  the 
fields  of  cane  which  to  my  friend  were  books  full  of 
thrilling  stories,  to  me  represented  little  beyond  a 
pleasant  patch  of  healthy-looking  green.  We  rode 
about  his  acres,  inspected  his  boiling  vats,  saw  the  cane 
crushed,  watched  the  juice  pour  out,  felt  the  heat  of 
the  boiler  fires,  admired  the  cleanliness  of  the  machin- 
ery, and  made  the  round  of  the  negro  cabins. 

As  vvc  rode  over  n  jjiecc  of  pasture-land,  I  was  struck 
by  two  brilliant  plants  that  roared  their  heads  about 
eighteen  inches  from  the  ground,  bearing  flowers  of 
lemon  and  crimson  color.  All  about  tliein  the  grass 
had  been  closely  cropped  by  the  browsing  animals, 
who,  however,  seemed  to  know  by  instinct   that  these 

(    201    1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

plants  were  not  to  be  disturbed.  "  The  negroes  know 
it  well,"  said  my  friend,  "  for  they  are  good  hands  at 
poisoning."  Then  he  called  out  to  a  passing  laborer 
to  tell  him  the  name  of  that  flower.  The  man  promptly 
said  "  Bechuana,"  adding  that  I  must  not  touch  it.  It 
was  the  deadly  ipecacuanha  which  I  subsequently  no- 
ticed in  St.  Thomas. 

The  Dominican  missionary,  Labat,  writing  in  1699 
from  the  islands,  tells  the  following  to  illustrate  the 
negroes'  familiarity  with  the  art  of  poisoning — a  tale 
which  is  capped  by  some  recounted  by  Canon  Kings- 
ley  from  Trinidad. 

A  slave  belonging  to  a  neighbor  of  the  priest,  when 
on  his  death-bed  asked  for  his  master  in  order  to  con- 
fess to  him  that  he  had  poisoned  some  thirty  of  his 
fellow  blacks,  and  in  this  way.  One  of  his  nails  he  al- 
lowed to  grow  longer  than  the  others,  and  under  this 
one  he  secreted  the  juice  of  a  poisonous  plant,  which 
was  done  by  simply  scratching  it  with  his  nail.  Then 
he  invited  his  victim  to  drink  a  glass  of  rum  with  him, 
the  first  glass  of  which  went  well  enough.  When  he 
filled  his  glass  the  second  time,  however,  he  held  the 
poisoned  nail  in  the  tumbler  suf^ciently  deep  to  allow 
the  liquor  to  be  permeated  with  it,  and  gave  this  to 
the  unsuspecting  guest,  who  in  less  than  two  hours 
from  the  time  of  drinking  died  in  horrible  convulsions. 
Labat  declined  to  name  the  plant  whose  efifect  was 
so  deadly,  though  he  made  experiments  with  it  that 
satisfied  him  of  its  power — no  doubt  this  same  ipe- 
cacuanha. 

The  little  town  of  Frederikstaedt,  at  the  western  end 
of  the  island,  had  little  beyond  the  name  to  suggest 
[  202  ] 


NOTES   FROM   DANISH   WEST   INDIES 

the  country  to  which  it  owed  allegiance — and  very- 
much  to  proclaim  it  as  belonging  to  England  or  the 
United  States.  American  paper  dollars  passed  cur- 
rent; our  purchases  in  the  market  were  at  the  rate  of 
so  many  cents,  not  so  many  krone  or  gulden;  the 
vehicles  that  scurried  about  were  from  New  England; 
the  horses  might  have  come  straight  from  Texas,  so 
much  were  they  like  mustangs;  the  shops  appeared  to 
have  been  supplied  from  London.  The  one  hotel  in 
the  place  was  in  its  interior  economy  the  counterpart 
of  what  one  might  have  found  in  any  small  town  in 
Canada.  The  inhabitants — negroes,  of  course,  for  of 
whites  there  were  so  few  as  to  be  hardly  worth  men- 
tioning— might  have  been  picked  up  in  Louisiana  or 
Georgia,  dress  and  all;  and  their  houses  had  little  to 
distinguish  them  from  what  their  black  brethren  in  the 
States  would  have  built. 

Many  of  the  houses  were  of  solid  masonry,  after  a 
fashion  common  in  Spanish  America  and  the  tropics 
generally,  looking  cool  in  the  hottest  days  by  reason 
of  the  free  play  given  to  air  and  the  ample  shade  be- 
neath their  picturesque  arches.  A  squad  or  tw^o  of 
fresh-faced  Scandinavian  soldiers  garrisoned  the  fort 
of  Frederikstaedt,  high-checked,  heallhy-looking  boys, 
some  of  whom  were  digging  in  the  garrison  garden 
as  we  strolled  by;  suggesting,  however,  the  inmates  of 
a  besieged  enclosure  rather  than  soldiers  in  control  of 
a  colony.  The  black  policemen  wore  Danish  helmets, 
but  their  speech  was  English,  while  the  occasional 
official  notices  that  ran  in  the  name  of  the  King  of 
Denmark,  were  in  English!  The  negroes  talk  only 
I'jiglish. 

[  203  ] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

The  women  of  Santa  Cruz  are  like  antique  god- 
desses of  Ethiopia.  They  march  along  the  highway 
with  a  freedom  of  step,  a  grace  of  poise,  an  elasticity 
and  erectness  of  carriage,  a  dignity  of  presence  that 
makes  one  stop  and  wonder  if  there  can  be  many  of 
this  heroic  build.  Our  feeble  products  of  super-civili- 
zation would  see  in  these  artless  children  of  the  tropics 
a  beauty  unobstructed  by  interference  of  vulgar  fash- 
ion. Their  feet  are  bare  and  their  Hght  skirts  are  lifted 
to  a  point  slightly  above  their  knees  by  tucking  them, 
as  did  the  Spartan  girls  of  old,  deftly  up  into  the  zone 
that  encircles  the  body.  Shapelier  feet  and  ankles 
were  never  seen  than  those  that  carried  these  breezy 
ebony  maidens,  their  skirts  swinging  merrily  about 
them  as  they  sang  their  way  to  town  carrying  on  their 
heads  pretty  baskets  filled  with  fruit.  The  carrying  of 
weights  on  the  head  operates  for  these  daughters  of 
the  new  world  as  for  those  of  Italy.  It  accustoms  them 
to  hold  their  heads  well;  to  throw  their  shoulders 
back;  to  expand  their  chest;  to  carry  their  spinal 
forces  perpendicularly,  and  to  attain  that  which  ath- 
letes acquire  only  by  patient  training — the  art  of  walk- 
ing from  the  hips.  Their  life  is  naturally  an  out-door 
one;  the  cost  of  their  clothing  for  a  year  is  probably 
less  than  a  few  pairs  of  gloves  for  one  of  our  girls; 
their  head-dress  is  the  picturesque  bandanna;  they 
happily  don't  appear  to  know  what  corsets  are  meant 
for,  and  consequently  they  furnish  to-day  a  picture  of 
health,  fine  lines  of  figure,  and  general  appearance  of 
"  style,"  that  could  not  be  matched  in  Mayfair, 
though  the  winsome  ladies  of  Tokio  approach  them 
in  grace  of  carriage. 

[  204  ] 


XIX 

THE    CHINAMAN   AS    COLONIST 

'  *  yls  the  only  people  {the  Chinese^  who  remain  effective  and  am- 
bitious in  tropical  climes  we  need  their  help  in  our  new  (^colonial') 
undertaking,  but  we  also  need  great  caution  in  handling  and  guid- 
ing them.^^ — Professor  Williams  of  Yale,  "The  Problem 
of  Chinese  Immigration  in  Farther  Asia. "      Washington,  1900. 

His  Increase  in  the  United  States  and  Australia — Singapore — Hong 
Kong — Industrial  Value 

THE  national  flag  of  China  is  rarely  if  ever  dis- 
played in  the  ports  of  the  white  man  or  even 
his  colonies.  Yet  it  is  hard  to  name  a  country 
wherein  the  Chinaman  is  not  profitably  engaged  in  a 
variety  of  occupations  ranging  from  a  wash-tub  to  a 
banking-house.  Hong-Kong,  which  was  but  a  pesti- 
lential desert  when  England  first  occupied  it  (1841), 
is  now  one  of  the  half  dozen  great  seaports  of  the 
world,  so  crowded  with  Chinese  that  a  large  share  of 
the  population  drips  over  the  sea-wall  into  thousands 
of  sampans  (small  native  boats). 

Singapore,  another  island  which  England  occupied 
only  eighty  years  ago,  as  a  part  of  the  Malay  Peninsula, 
has  attracted  a  teeming  Chinese  population,  which  has 
not  merely  asserted  its  superiority  over  the  native  of 
East  India,  but  is  competing  successfully  with  mer- 
chants of  our  race.    Such  has  been  llic  stimulating  cf- 

f  205  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

feet  of  British  administration  that  the  Chinaman,  who 
in  Peking  and  Canton  conceals  his  wealth,  makes  such 
a  display  of  it  in  Singapore  and  Hong-Kong  as  to 
astonish  new  arrivals.  It  is  no  uncommon  thing  at 
Singapore  to  meet  on  the  Drive  Chinese  merchants, 
taking  their  evening  airing  in  perfectly  appointed  Eu- 
ropean carriages,  drawn  by  costly  and  well-harnessed 
horses,  and  with  coachmen  and  footmen  in  livery  on 
the  box.  The  same  men  would  in  their  own  country 
crouch  in  the  back  of  a  springless  two-wheeled  cart 
and  simulate  poverty.  In  Java  and  the  Philippines, 
though  Dutch  and  Spaniards  have  passed  successive 
laws  discouraging  to  Chinese  settlement,  neither  gov- 
ernment has  more  than  temporarily  checked  emigra- 
tion from  the  Celestial  Empire.  In  Batavia,  as  in 
Manila,  Chinese  competition  affects  nearly  every 
branch  of  human  industry,  from  day  labor  in  the  plan- 
tation to  the  chartering  of  freight  steamers. 

The  United  States  has  not  legislated  liberally  for 
the  Chinese,  and  therefore  the  development  of  the 
Philippines  will  probably  remain  less  satisfactory  than 
that  of  corresponding  English  territory  in  those 
regions. 

Throughout  the  East  Indies  and  the  hundreds  of 
islands  north  of  Australia,  between  the  Indian  Ocean 
and  the  shores  of  South  America,  the  Chinese  are 
spreading  themselves  in  proportion  as  they  are  not  for- 
bidden by  superior  force.  Like  the  Jews,  they  show 
good  or  bad  qualities  according  to  the  administration 
of  the  country  they  select.  It  is  no  mere  accident  that 
the  best  type  of  Jew  is  to  be  found  in  England  and  the 
vilest  in  Russia.  Did  we  take  advantage  of  this  warn- 
[  206  ] 


THE   CHINAMAN   AS   COLONIST 

ing,  Manila  would  soon  attract  as  good  Chinamen  as 
Singapore,  and  San  Francisco  would  have  as  respect- 
able a  Chinese  quarter  as  Hong-Kong. 

Australia  shares  with  the  United  States — in  part, 
at  least — a  frank  hostility  to  Chinese  immigration,  al- 
though neither  country  can  execute  its  own  laws  on 
the  subject  to  their  full  extent. 

The  Chinaman  has  a  quality  which  makes  him  in 
many  respects  the  best  colonist  in  the  world.  I  refer 
to  his  extraordinary  capacity  to  endure  extremes  of 
heat  and  cold. 

When  the  Pei-ho  River  is  frozen  tight  and  Euro- 
pean gun-boats  are  locked  fast  at  Tien-tsin ;  when  the 
north  wind  from  across  the  MongoHan  Desert  pro- 
duces a  temperature  suggesting  that  of  Dakota  in 
January;  when  all  who  can  do  so  wrap  themselves  in 
furs,  and  the  long  camel-trains  from  beyond  the  Great 
Wall  move  like  a  mass  of  frosted  figures — throughout 
such  winters  the  Chinese  coolie,  in  his  cotton  quilting, 
labors  from  morning  until  night,  or  squats  in  the  street 
beside  his  little  stall,  making  no  more  of  his  Siberian 
winter  than  the  Russian  moujik  in  his  coat  of  sheep- 
skin. 

The  Chinaman  on  the  Canton  River  under  a  tropi- 
cal sun  astonishes  the  white  sailor  by  labor  so  ener- 
getic and  so  persistent  as  to  appear  incredible  in  any 
human  creature.  Summer  and  winter,  near  the  ecjua- 
tor  or  the  arctic  circle,  all  weathers  seem  alike  to  the 
Chinaman.  I  liave  seen  llicm  in  July  and  August  at 
Singaj)cjrc  and  I  long-Kong,  and  in  the  winter  season 
in  Canada  and  Corca,  in  South  America  at  the  mouth 
of  the  ()rinoc(J  and  in  I  lie  Ivcd  Sea  in  tlu-  slokc-hole 

I  ^'o;  I 


THE  CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

of  a  mail-steamer.  Where  the  white  man  shrivels  up 
with  the  cold  or  turns  limp  with  the  heat,  John 
Chinaman  jogs  along  with  a  big  load  on  his  back, 
crooning  a  sort  of  a  sing-song  and  wondering  why 
other  people  do  not  take  life  easily.  On  my  first 
journey  from  Hong-Kong  to  San  Francisco,  in  1876, 
our  ship  carried  2,000  Chinamen,  and  the  captain 
assured  me  that  they  were  cleaner  in  their  personal 
habits,  gave  him  infinitely  less  trouble,  than  twenty 
Irishmen.  In  1898  we  had  a  deck  load  of  some 
1,500  Chinese  returning  from  Singapore  to  Hong- 
Kong,  and  so  clean  and  quiet  were  they  that  their 
existence  was  hardly  suspected  by  the  white  passen- 
gers on  the  upper  deck.  They  did  their  own  cook- 
ing in  their  own  way,  slept  on  their  mats,  kept  the 
decks  scrupulously  clean,  and  did  not  quarrel.  I  am 
inclined  to  think  that  these  passengers  in  three  days 
did  not  dirty  the  ship  so  much  as  would  have  done 
steerage  passengers  from  Queenstown  in  half  an  hour. 
In  that  same  year  one  of  the  splendid  ships  of  the 
"  Empress  "  Line,  which  carried  me  from  Yokohama 
to  Vancouver,  had  about  1,000  Chinese  forward,  and 
these  were,  according  to  law,  fumigated  on  arrival  in 
Canada.  It  was  a  ridiculous  precaution  in  the  opinion 
of  the  captain  as  well  as  of  those  who  knew  the 
Chinese.  If  any  fumigation  of  emigrants  were  justified, 
it  was  not  on  the  Pacific  Slope,  but  in  New  York  or 
Montreal — against  our  fellow  Christians! 

In  the  United  States  we  have  found  the  Chinaman 
an  industrial  blessing — nay,  an  industrial  necessity. 
In  the  construction  of  our  first  railway,  joining  At- 
lantic and  Pacific,  he  came  under  contract  to  work 
[  208  ] 


THE   CHINAMAN   AS   COLONIST 

as  a  coolie  in  shovelling  dirt  and  lifting  rails  and 
sleepers.  It  was  expected  that  on  the  completion  of 
his  term  he  would  disappear  along  with  the  caboose 
of  the  construction  train.  But  we  miscalculated  com- 
pletely the  intelligence  of  our  guest,  and  in  a  few  years 
the  mining  camps  of  California  were  enriched  by  a 
new  race  whose  prosperity  in  American  soil  was 
checked  only  by  occasional  mob  violence.  Often  have 
I  seen  in  the  California  of  twenty-five  years  ago  the 
Chinaman  working  over  diggings  which  white  men 
regarded  as  exhausted.  They  grew  rich  by  working 
at  occupations  which  seemed  undignified  to  the  new- 
ly arrived  emigrant  from  Ireland.  Officers  of  the 
United  States  Army  stationed  in  our  remote  terri- 
tories have  assured  me  that  they  would  have  had  to 
do  their  own  house-work  but  for  John  Chinaman. 
He  occupied  the  ground  which  no  other  emigrant 
could  occupy  so  well — turning  his  hand  to  raising 
vegetables,  waiting  at  table,  cooking  the  dinner,  or 
taking  the  baby  out  for  an  airing. 

But  the  political  influence  of  San  Francisco  labor 
unions  was  strong  enough  to  get  a  law  passed  exclud- 
ing the  Chinese  from  the  United  States,  or,  at  least, 
preventing  any  more  from  coming  in. 

Thanks,  however,  to  the  laxity  of  our  frontier  offi- 
cials, the  Chinese  have  trickled  in  over  the  3.000  miles 
of  northern  frontier  so  successfully  that  to-day  there 
is  hardly  a  hamlet  in  the  United  States  where  one  or 
more  Chinamen  are  not  earning  a  competency — at 
least  at  the  wash-tub.  Here  is  a  colonization  less  than 
half  a  century  old,  vigorously  discouraged  by  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  and  wlu)lly  unsupported 

\    2(K>    ] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

by  the  home  government,  proceeding  silently,  stead- 
ily, and  irresistibly  upon  a  career  of  industrial  con- 
quest, the  extent  of  which  is  practically  the  whole 
earth.  There  are  Chinamen  in  the  West  Indies  and 
in  South  America,  as  well  as  in  Canada  and  the  United 
States.  On  the  Pacific  they  man  English  and  Ameri- 
can steamships  from  the  steward's  pantry  to  the  stoke- 
hole. The  North  German  Lloyd  carries  a  fully 
equipped  Chinese  laundry  from  Bremen  to  Shanghai, 
as  well  as  shifts  of  Chinese  firemen.  They  would  carry 
Chinese  stewards  as  well  did  they  not  fear  political  op- 
position in  Parhament  instigated  by  the  trade  unions. 

During  the  battle  of  Manila  Bay  the  Chinamen  who 
served  under  Admiral  Dewey  as  firemen,  stewards, 
etc.,  showed  as  much  fighting  zeal  and  courage  as  any 
blue  jacket  could  wish.  An  American  officer,  who  had 
some  Chinamen  under  him  employed  during  the  bat- 
tle in  passing  ammunition,  told  me  these  kept  con- 
stantly exposing  themselves  in  their  eagerness  to 
know  how  the  fight  was  going  on.  They  would  keep 
popping  up  from  below,  shout  out  to  the  men  at  the 
guns:  "Give  them  Hell,  boys!"  then  disappear  like 
prairie  dogs,  after  more  ammunition.  Their  zeal  was 
no  doubt  stimulated  by  the  fond  anticipation  that 
American  administration  in  the  Philippines  would  be 
more  favorable  to  them  than  that  of  Spain. 

The  Chinaman  is  colonizing  the  world  in  the  sense 
that  the  German  has  done  so — he  is  the  only  man  who 
appears  to  love  work  for  its  own  sake. 

The  Chinaman  resembles  the  German  in  his  capac- 
ity to  leave  his  country  without  worrying  much  in  re- 
gard to  religious  observances.     The  Irish  colonist's 

[    2IO   ] 


THE   CHINAMAN   AS   COLONIST 

first  question  is,  how  near  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
may  be.  The  Chinaman  and  the  German  care  very  ht- 
tle  whether  there  is  any  church  in  the  neighborhood 
— they  don't  even  care  much  as  to  who  is  president  or 
king. 

In  the  summer  of  1900  the  streets  of  New  York 
echoed  to  the  howhngs  of  a  mob  of  white  men  who 
seized  inoffensive  negroes,  beat  them  brutally,  and  in 
some  instances  left  them  for  dead  on  the  pavement. 
Such  an  outbreak  is  the  manifestation  of  a  race  hatred 
which  requires  but  a  flimsy  excuse  to  demonstrate  that 
the  equality  of  black  and  white  is,  in  the  United  States 
at  least,  not  a  popular  doctrine  in  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. We  have  ourselves  raised  the  negro  question  by 
declaring  the  black  man  equal  to  the  white  in  political 
rights.  The  Chinaman  we  exclude  completely  from 
citizenship.  There  would  be  more  sense  in  recogniz- 
ing the  Chinaman  as  our  equal  than  the  negro.  But 
neither  would  be  wise,  or  even  expedient. 

The  Chinaman  we  have  hitherto  looked  upon  as  a 
stranger  who  would  soon  return  to  his  own  country; 
whom  we  could,  therefore,  afford  to  ignore  politically. 
Having  no  vote,  our  politicians  have  not  bothered 
themselves  on  his  behalf,  and,  having  no  political 
friends  in  the  country,  the  mobs  have  felt  that  they 
could  assault  him  with  impunity.  But  mobs  and  polit- 
ical disabilities  have  alike  failed  to  discourage  him,  and 
he  is  now  an  imijortant  economic  element  in  the 
United  States. 

So  far  he  has  .sliown  himself  but  timidly,  and  has 
but  in  few  instances  reared  his  head  as  an  organizer 
of  labor.    On  the  Pacific  Coast  he  figures  extensively 

[  211  ] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

in  farming,  and  it  is  to  him  that  California  mainly  owes 
her  commanding  position  as  a  fruit  producer. 

In  the  near  future  we  shall  no  doubt  see  him  spread- 
ing over  the  plantations  of  the  Southern  States; 
cultivating  the  bottom-lands  of  our  Gulf  States;  re- 
viving agriculture  in  Mississippi  and  South  Carolina; 
acquiring  large  estates;  beating  the  negro  at  his  own 
work,  and,  ultimately,  making  a  New  South  of  indus- 
trial and  political  security. 

We  have  hitherto  thought  that  negroes  only  could 
cultivate  the  bottom-lands  of  our  Gulf  States — we 
shall  discover  that  the  Chinaman  can  do  so  on  better 
terms;  that,  though  we  may  pay  him  more  per  day, 
we  shall  get  a  reward  from  his  labor  that  will  amply 
cover  the  increased  outlay.  In  Natal,  on  the  occasion 
of  my  visit,  some  40,000  natives  of  India  were  engaged 
upon  the  sugar  plantations.  That  was  indeed  carrying 
coals  to  Newcastle — to  bring  to  the  habitat  of  the 
negro,  men  of  another  race  to  work  in  the  tropical  sun 
on  the  low  lands  about  Durban.  Yet  the  Natal  plant- 
ers cheerfully  paid  the  cost,  because  experience  had 
taught  them  that  they  could  not  depend  upon  the 
negro  for  steady  work — at  least  not  under  the  polit- 
ical freedom  and  the  other  conditions  prevailing  in 
South  Africa. 

On  a  small  island  like  Santa  Cruz  or  Barbados  in 
the  West  Indies,  the  negro  who  takes  a  contract  to 
work  for  a  specified  term  can  be  compelled  to  fulfil 
that  contract,  because  there  is  nowhere  near  to  which 
he  can  run  away  and  support  himself  in  idleness.  The 
police  w^ould  soon  bring  back  a  defaulting  negro  in 
such  an  island.  But  in  Natal,  the  Kaffir  who  is  tired 
[  212  I 


THE  CHINAMAN   AS   COLONIST 

of  work,  slips  off  in  a  night  and  the  next  day  is  among 
his  own  people  in  Zululand,  and  can  kick  his  heels  in 
the  sun  while  his  wives  pick  bananas  for  him  and  get 
his  dinner  ready.  In  the  United  States  we  have  no 
legal  machinery  by  which  a  negro  can  be  compelled  to 
carry  out  a  labor  contract  effectively;  and,  conse- 
quently, planting  is  not  an  ideal  occupation  for  him 
who  has  to  advance  capital  in  an  enterprise  which  at 
any  moment  may  be  seriously  affected  by  a  holiday — 
and  his  black  workmen  may  select  the  harvest  time  for 
this  recreation! 

The  Chinaman  has  the  great  merit  of  being  indif- 
ferent to  holidays,  as  he  is  to  heat  and  cold.  If  he 
makes  you  a  promise  you  may  be  sure  that  he  will  keep 
it.  The  manager  of  the  Hong-Kong  and  Shanghai 
Bank  told  me  that  on  the  Chinese  coast  he  employed 
hundreds  of  Chinese  who  had  ample  opportunity  for 
defrauding  him  if  they  chose,  but  that  the  idea  of  loss 
through  Chinese  dishonesty  never  entered  his  head 
or  the  head  of  any  other  white  merchant.  The  Chi- 
nese have  the  notion  of  commercial  honesty  highly  de- 
veloped, and  local  companies  are  found  who  will  in- 
sure you  against  all  manner  of  dishonesty,  from  that 
of  a  scullery-boy  to  the  irregularity  of  a  bank  cashier. 
If  a  Chinaman  gives  you  his  word  on  a  bargain  you 
may  count  upon  him,  even  though  the  bargain  prove 
unprofitable  to  Jiini.  C'ommcrcial  honesty  may  not  i)C 
the  highest  form  of  litnnan  honesty,  but,  such  as  it  is, 
it  is  essentially  Chinese. 

The  negro  has  no  trace  of  this  instinct.  He  may 
promise  you  solemnly  to  pick  your  cotton  crop  on  a 
certain  day,  and  at  the  time  he  means  well  by  you; 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

but  if  on  the  morning  of  that  day  some  whim  calls 
him  to  the  town — a  dance,  a  cake-walk,  or  a  picnic 
of  some  kind — the  cotton  crop  may  rot  for  all  the 
thought  he  will  give  it  until  after  he  has  exhausted 
his  appetite  for  pleasure.  With  a  Chinaman  that  cot- 
ton would  have  been  his  only  thought  until  the  last 
flufif  had  been  picked. 

So  far  the  Chinaman  is  known  on  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board mainly  as  a  laundryman — a  day  worker.  In 
Hong-Kong  he  has,  however,  already  established  him- 
self as  a  competitor  to  the  white  contractor  for  manu- 
factured articles.  He  is  already  building  steam- 
launches,  to  say  nothing  of  repairing  ships.  At  Shang- 
hai the  Chinaman  is  running  steam  cotton-mills,  and 
at  Macao  I  visited  a  silk-mill  entirely  peopled  by  Chi- 
nese— men,  women,  and  children.  The  military  neces- 
sities of  the  Chinese  Empire  are  bound  to  increase  the 
demand  for  local  mechanics,  and  familiarity  with  steam 
machinery  will,  little  by  little,  breed  a  mechanical  class 
of  laborers,  who  will  threaten  our  machine  shops  quite 
as  much  as  our  laundries.  In  the  interval  between 
my  first  and  second  visit  to  China  (twenty-three  years) 
many  changes  had  occurred,  but  almost  exclusively 
under  the  shadow  of  the  white  man's  settlements.  It 
is  not  yet  clear  to  what  extent  the  mass  of  China  is 
accessible  to  new  ideas.  The  heads  of  manufacturing 
concerns  in  China,  with  whom  I  talked  in  1898,  were 
unanimous  on  the  subject  of  the  Chinaman  as  a  rival 
mechanic.  They  regarded  him  as  an  excellent  laborer 
under  white  guidance,  but  as  a  feeble  creature  when 
left  to  himself.  The  Chinaman  is,  indeed,  too  much  of 
a  machine  himself  ever  to  be  a  successful  mechanic. 
[  214  ] 


THE   CHINAMAN   AS   COLONIST 

In  America  every  mechanic  worthy  of  the  name  is  at 
the  same  time  an  inventor.  In  China  the  coolie  works 
day  in  and  day  out,  and  all  his  life,  without  apparently 
reflecting  upon  the  possibilities  of  his  machine.  To 
him  all  things  are  of  the  past — he  has  not  yet  come  to 
regard  his  work  as  an  opening  to  the  future.  In  the 
dockyards  of  Hong-Kong  the  laborers  are  nearly  all 
Chinese,  and  their  wages  a  mere  trifle  compared  to 
what  an  American  would  be  earning  on  the  Delaware; 
yet  the  English  manager  told  me  that  this  labor  was 
so  painfully  mechanical,  and  required  so  much  super- 
vision, that  its  value  was  thereby  much  impaired.  The 
white  man  got  more  money  because  he  earned  it.  If 
the  Chinese  built  a  man-of-war  to-day,  the  chances  are 
that  they  would  continue  repeating  the  same  type  for 
the  next  fifty  years,  irrespective  of  any  improvements 
that  might  have  been  made  in  the  interval. 

The  triumph  of  Industrial  China  is  a  remote  con- 
tingency. For  the  moment  we  have  before  us  a  press- 
ing question,  presented  to  us  by  newly  acquired  colo- 
nies. These  are  tropical  countries  in  which  the  white 
man  does  not  do  good  field  labor,  and  in  which  the 
work  of  the  black  man  is  far  from  satisfactory.  The 
Chinaman  can  do  that  work — he  is  doing  correspond- 
ing work  in  British  colonics — his  work  is  satisfactory, 
and  there  is  every  reason  for  thinking  that  under 
proper  restrictions  he  would  jjrove  as  valuable  to  Cuba 
and  Luzon  as  he  has  already  proved  to  Singapore  and 
Hong-Kong. 


[  215  1 


XX 

OLD   FRANCE   IN   THE   NEW  WORLD 

"A   churchly    and   official  race    could   not   win   America.^' — 
WooDROW  Wilson,  "Colonies  and  Nations." 

Influences  which  Retarded  Colonization  in  Canada — History  of 
the  Movement — Church  and  State 

EVEN  to-day  there  are  few  bits  of  the  world 
more  filled  with  surprises  for  the  traveller  than 
Lower  Canada.  Within  a  few  hours  from  Bos- 
ton or  New  York,  we  arrive,  on  the  banks  of  the  St. 
Lawrence,  in  the  midst  of  a  peasant  population  clus- 
tered in  villages  from  the  midst  of  each  of  which  rises 
the  shining  tin  roof  of  a  Roman  Catholic  church.  In- 
stead of  the  lean  Congregational  minister  hurrying  in 
his  light  buggy,  we  raise  our  hat  to  "  Monsieur  le 
Cure,"  a  rotund,  genial  old  gentleman  already  familiar 
to  us  from  the  pages  of  "  Evangeline."  He  travels  in 
a  solid  old  gig  or  "  caleche,"  as  the  Canadians  call  it; 
his  horse,  a  sleek,  slow-gaited,  much  petted  animal 
who  shares  with  his  master  strong  dislike  for  Yankee 
hurry  and  restlessness.  In  quaint  old  Quebec  we  put 
up  at  an  inn  in  the  Rue  de  la  Montague,  where  nearly 
every  detail  recalls  the  shores  of  Normandy,  from  the 
huge  four-poster  bed,  to  the  conversation  in  the  cof- 
fee-room. 

Hence,  down  the  majestic  St.  Lawrence  and  up  to 
[  216  ] 


OLD   FRANCE   IN   THE   NEW    WORLD 

the  Saguenay  to  Chicoutimi,  we  are  on  the  trail  of 
Frenchmen,  very  Httle  changed  in  their  language, 
their  religion,  or  even  their  customs.  When  they 
move  to-day  it  is  still  with  the  priest  as  their  path- 
finder, and  their  social  organization  bears  upon  it  the 
stamp  of  weakness  placed  there  by  Louis  XIV. 

That  monarch  was  the  founder  of  modern  Canada, 
thanks  to  the  tact  and  courage  of  Champlain,*  who, 
in  1628,  secured  a  charter  which  was  very  liberal,  for 
those  times,  of  Richelieu  and  Louis  XIIL 

Up  to  this  time  Canada  had  attracted  to  itself  merely 
a  few  adventurers  who  united  the  profession  of  arms 
with  that  of  traffic  with  the  Indians.  A  French  writer 
of  the  times  complained  that  while  Maryland  in  the 
first  twenty  years  of  her  settlement  had  attracted  12,- 
000  Europeans,  Canada  in  seven  corresponding  years, 
under  an  earlier  charter,  had  a  total  population  of  only 
forty. 

Yet  Canada  was  a  part  of  the  French  Crown  in  1535, 
when  a  brave  sailor  of  St.  Malo,  Jacques  Cartier,  sailed 
up  the  St.  Lawrence  and  claimed  for  Francis  I.  the 
whole  of  the  western  world  north  of  Mexico  and 
Florida.  At  that  time  no  English  or  Dutch  interfer- 
ence was  apprclicndcd,  and  France  was  offered  an 
opportunity  vastly  eclipsing  anything  ever  offered  by 
the  Pope  to  Spain  and  Portugal.    But,  unfortunately, 

*  Champlain  was  born  in  Krancc  in  1567,  and  died  at  Quebec  in  1635. 
Of  him  r;iri<rnan  wrote,  in  his  Pioneers  of  France:  "Samuel  de  C'hamp- 
laiii  has  been  fitly  called  the  l''ather  of  New  I'Vance.  In  him  were 
embodied  her  rcli^jious  zeal  and  romantic  sjiirit  of  adventure.  Hcfore 
the  close  of  his  career,  ])tir^^ed  of  heresy,  she  took  the  posture  which  she 
held  to  the  day  of  hi*r  death — in  one  hand  the  ('rucilix,  in  tin-  other  the 
sword.  I  lis  life,  full  of  si^nilicance,  is  the  true  be|;innin^  of  her  event- 
ful history." 

I   -''7  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

the  religious  intolerance  of  the  mother-country,  which 
manifested  itself  in  the  bloody  suppression  of  Protest- 
antism, reflected  itself  in  the  measure  taken  for  ex- 
tending her  colonial  empire.  The  noble  mind  of 
Coligny  *  conceived  the  idea  of  opening  the  land  of 
the  New  World  to  settlement  by  French  refugees  from 
political  or  religious  persecution;  but  the  Crown 
would  not  entertain  any  such  plan,  and,  consequently, 
the  vigorous  Frenchmen  who  should  have  colonized 
Canada  found  their  way  ultimately,  some  to  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope,  and  many  more  to  the  Enghsh  colonies 
in  America. 

For  nearly  a  century  after  the  acquisition  of  Canada 
( 1 535-1628),  Canadian  history  is  superbly  romantic, 
but  colonially  barren.  France  developed  a  large  num- 
ber of  roving  and  reckless  adventurers — men  who  had 
incurred  legal  disabihties;  who  chafed  under  home 
restrictions;  whose  creditors  were  pressing;  who 
thirsted  for  glory — who  possibly  hoped  for  more  fav- 
orable times  should  they  absent  themselves  for  a  few 
years — this  was  the  element  v^hich  carried  the  French 
flag  and  the  missionary  cross  far  into  the  wilderness, 
and  captivated  the  imagination  of  their  compatriots 
by  a  chain  of  conquest  so  rapid  as  to  rival  that  of  the 
early  Portuguese  navigators.  But  it  is  one  thing  to 
plant  sign-boards  over  the  wilderness  and  quite  another 

*  Admiral  Coligny  was  born  in  15 17,  and  was  murdered  in  Paris  in  the 
presence  of  the  Uuke  of  Guise  in  1572 — the  first  victim  of  the  St.  Bar- 
tholomew Massacre.  The  spirit  which  produced  that  horrible  butchery 
is  by  no  means  dead.  In  Toulouse,  a  city  in  the  south  of  France,  there 
were  riots  in  1872  because  the  Republican  Government  attempted  to  pre- 
vent the  citizens  from  celebrating  the  three  hundredth  anniversary  of  that 
disgraceful  episode  in  Roman  Catholic  history.  Paris  has  a  monument 
to  Coligny ;  it  is  carefully  guarded  against  fanatical  violence. 

[   218   ] 


OLD   FRANCE   IN   THE   NEW    WORLD 

to  plant  colonies,  and  that  explains  why,  after  more 
than  two  centuries  of  French  occupation,  one  battle 
on  the  heights  of  Quebec  (1759)  wrested  this  whole 
country  from  France,  and  turned  her  over  as  an  addi- 
tional asset  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  world. 

Yet,  at  the  opening  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
France  had,  on  the  maps  at  least,  a  larger  colonial  em- 
pire than  either  England  or  Holland.  She  had  a  splen- 
did colonial  outfit,  so  far  as  priests,  soldiers,  and  sail- 
ors were  concerned — she  lacked  only  colonists.  The 
French  have  ever  shown  a  strong  disinclination  to 
leave  their  own  country,  and  it  is  worth  noting  that  the 
only  people  who  in  those  days  desired  to  emigrate  were 
by  law  forbidden  to  do  so — for  the  early  charters  care- 
fully provided  that  only  good  Catholics  should  be  tol- 
erated in  French  colonies.  Protestants  were  assumed 
to  be  disloyal  to  the  Government.  Thus,  the  very  ele- 
ment which  was  the  backbone  of  England  beyond  the 
ocean,  was,  by  the  Crown,  forbidden  to  assist  in  build- 
ing up  a  French  empire  in  America. 

When  we  reflect  upon  the  excellent  results  which 
the  few  French  colonists  did  achieve  in  Canada  be- 
tween the  charter  of  1628  and  the  death  of  Wolfe  in 
1759 — that  all  this  was  accomplished  in  spite  of  a 
legislation  which  excluded  the  best  French  element 
from  Canada — there  is  good  ground  for  a  Frenchman's 
thinking  that,  under  a  more  liberal  home  government, 
French  would  have  become  the  ruling  language  from 
the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

Though  the  past  cannot  be  altered,  the  lessons  of 
the  past,  if  taken  lo  heart  by  Rc'|)ul)lican  JMancc,  can 
undo  much  of  what  is  now  a  drawback  to  her  colonial 

[  219  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

success.  Richelieu,  in  1628,  introduced  into  Canada 
a  religious  domination,  almost  as  oppressive  as  what 
existed  at  home,  and  parcelled  the  land  out  to  French 
noblemen.  Naturally,  none  but  the  serf-like  peasants 
would  permit  themselves  to  be  enrolled  in  a  colonizing 
venture  of  this  kind,  and  it  required  all  the  influence  of 
the  Crown,  backed  by  that  of  the  parish  priests — to 
say  nothing  of  local  misery — in  order  to  start  the  small 
stream  of  emigration  whose  results  we  now  see  on  the 
lower  St.  Lawrence.  A  company  which  had  the  Cana- 
dian monopoly,  engaged  itself  to  send  out  three  hun- 
dred colonists  in  1628,  and  4,000  more  within  the  fol- 
lowing fifteen  years.  Not  only  were  the  colonists  to 
be  Catholic,  but  there  were  to  be  at  least  three  mis- 
sionaries to  every  settlement. 

The  Church,  however,  not  satisfied  with  minister- 
ing to  the  needs  of  its  parishioners  and  converting 
Indians,  immediately  appropriated  valuable  land  to 
itself,  built  monasteries  and  nunneries,  and  by  ex- 
acting tithes,  saddled  the  struggling  peasants  with 
still  further  burdens.  From  the  outset,  Canada  pre- 
sented a  picture  of  feudal  aristocracy  and  religious 
domination  sustained  by  the  labor  of  ignorant  and  in- 
dustrious peasants.  These  had  little  in  common  with 
the  adventurers  who  explored  the  great  lakes  or  fought 
the  Spaniards  in  the  West  Indies. 

The  early  years  of  colonies  are  of  infinite  interest  to 
us  for  the  degree  to  which  they  reflect  the  qualities  of 
the  mother-country,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  how 
naturally  a  colony  evolves  according  to  the  character  of 
the  first  settlers,  or  of  the  administration  which  con- 
trolled its  origin.  We  have  seen  how  the  Spaniards 
[  220  ] 


OLD   FRANCE   IN   THE   NEW    WORLD 

crowded  to  the  New  World,  thirsting  merely  for  wealth 
and  plunder,  building  monasteries  and  cities  rather 
than  establishing  plantations;  and  reflecting  through- 
out the  Spanish  Main  the  official  centralization  of 
Madrid.  We  have  seen  the  superiority  of  Brazil  grow- 
ing out  of  the  happy  accident  that  a  handful  of  refugee 
political  prisoners  and  Jews  organized  self-govern- 
ment at  a  time  when  popular  representation  had  long 
since  ceased  in  the  Iberian  Peninsula.  The  rebellious 
Dutch  and  Huguenots  of  the  Cape  did  more  for  the 
colonial  glory  of  Holland  than  two  centuries  of  her 
Great  East  India  Company,  and  England's  noblest  colo- 
nial monument  was  reared  not  by  a  Clive  or  a  Warren 
Hastings,  a  Drake  or  a  Raleigh,  but  by  a  boat-load  of 
Puritan  rebels  who  accepted  the  risks  of  a  settlement 
in  the  wilderness  rather  than  surrender  one  tittle  of 
controverted  doctrine.  We  need  not  then  be  surprised 
if  to-day  the  French  in  Canada  represent  the  least  en- 
terprising white  element  in  the  northern  half  of 
America.  They  show  still  the  effects  of  their  early 
tutelage.  In  search  of  wages  they  cross  the  Canadian 
border  into  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and  Vermont. 
They  drift  to  the  lowest  level  of  the  manufacturing 
population,  along  with  the  Irish  and  Italians,  instead 
of  to  the  top  with  the  German,  Scandinavian,  and 
Anglo-Saxon.  The  great  tide  of  English  colonization 
has  swept  up  the  St.  Lawrence,  i)ast  the  monasteries  of 
the  clergy  and  the  castles  of  i^rmids  sciij^iicurs,  beyond 
Quebec  and  Montreal,  to  Toronto,  Winnipeg,  Van- 
couver, and  the  Klondike.  The  hronch  have  followed 
timidly  in  the  j)ay  of  Iho  more  adventurous  Hilton. 
Hut  all  hoi)e  of  restoring  Canada  to  I'rancc  passed  away 
[  ^-ii   J 


THE   CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

when  it  was  clearly  demonstrated  that  the  Frenchman 
of  Canada  could  not  even  spread  himself  abroad  with- 
out the  priest  preceding  him.  No  greater  national 
contrast  is  offered  by  history  than  the  helplessness  of 
the  French  Canadian  peasant,  and  the  resourceful 
courage  of  the  French  Huguenot  in  South  Africa. 

France's  day  of  greatest  military  glory  followed,  as 
did  that  of  Spain,  close  upon  the  heels  of  a  centrahza- 
tion  which  succeeded  in  effectually  suppressing  repre- 
sentative institutions.  The  France  which  had  pro- 
duced adventurers  like  Jacques  Cartier  was  a  France 
in  which  a  certain  degree  of  popular  liberty  permitted 
strong  individual  characters  to  develop  and  find  pub- 
lic employment.  With  the  consolidation  of  all  politi- 
cal power  in  the  hands  of  a  monarch  who  was  himself 
but  an  instrument  of  another  political  machine — the 
Papacy — free  thought  became  rebellion,  and  free  ac- 
tion was  possible  only  to  those  who  became  buccaneers 
in  the  West  Indies,  or  sought  other  adventure  among 
the  Indians  of  the  Canadian  Northwest. 

Before  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century',  when 
Canada  did  not  yet  count  10,000  colonists,  French  ad- 
venturers had  planted  flags  and  military  posts  all  the 
way  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  head  waters  of  the 
Mississippi;  and  down  that  stream  to  the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico— claiming  it  all  in  the  name  of  the  King  of  France. 
Yet,  throughout  that  great  sphere,  there  was  not  then 
a  single  settlement  worthy  to  compare  with  the  feeblest 
of  Massachusetts. 

Even  in  1759  all  Canada  had  but  82,000  white  in- 
habitants— after  two  centuries  of  artificial  and  very 
costly  "  protection."  At  that  rate  it  is  pretty  safe  to 
I  222  ] 


OLD   FRANCE   IN   THE   NEW   WORLD 

surmise  that  it  would  inevitably  have  fallen  to  the  New 
England  colonies  or  the  United  States,  even  without 
the  blow  which  Wolfe  administered  in  1759. 

The  seizure  of  Canada  by  England  proved  of  great 
benefit,  for  it  immediately  revived  commerce,  and  gave 
the  people  more  political  liberty  than  they  had  ever 
known  before.  When  the  American  War  broke  out 
in  1776,  the  French  settlers  repaid  this  good  treatment 
by  refusing  to  cast  in  their  lot  with  the  United  States, 
and,  consequently,  when  that  war  closed,  Canada  be- 
came a  refuge  to  a  large  number  of  Americans  who 
had  remained  loyal  to  the  mother-country  during  the 
war. 

Down  to  our  day  we  find  in  Canada  a  large  com- 
munity speaking  French  and  practising  the  Roman 
Catholic  religion,  without  interference  from  the  Prot- 
estant English  Government.  French  is  used  in  the 
Legislature,  and  the  two  languages  are  on  a  practical 
equality.  The  people  of  French  descent  cling  to  their 
language  and  religion  with  the  tenacity  of  peasants — 
but  they  learn  English  in  proportion  as  they  develop 
enough  intelligence  to  desire  an  improvement  in  their 
social  position.  The  same  transformation  is  pro- 
gressing in  Canada  as  in  Dutch  South  Africa — Eng- 
lish is  supplanting  all  other  languages,  not  because  the 
police  are  interfering  on  its  behalf,  but  because  the  peo- 
ple themselves,  as  they  improve  in  education,  realize 
that  the  English  language  is  a  more  useful  one. 


r  223 1 


XXI 

THE   SPIRIT   OF   FRANCE   IN   THE   WEST 
INDIES 

**  La  guerre  est  la  solution  violente  d' un  probleme  economique  ; 
la  colonization  en  est  la  solution  pacifiquey — Colonel  Mon- 
TEiL.      Extract  from  an  address,  1898,  Paris. 

Liberty  and  Progress  Due  to  the  Freebooters — Martinique  and 
Guadeloupe — Effect  of  Slavery 

THE  French  colonists  in  Canada  were  much 
hampered  by  being  from  the  outset  smoth- 
ered in  priestly  and  administrative  swaddling 
clothes.  The  French  West  India  Islands,  on  the  con- 
trary, showed  an  extraordinary  vitality  and  prosperity, 
owing  to  the  large  number  of  freebooters  or  buccaneers 
who  composed  the  early  settlements.  At  one  time, 
San  Domingo,  while  under  French  dominion,  far  ex- 
ceeded Cuba  in  importance,  and  to-day,  Martinique 
is  the  possession  which  Frenchmen  regard  with  a  just 
pride.* 

*  The  spotted  career  of  Hayti  and  San  Domingo  is  illustrated  by  these 
dates:  in  1492  it  was  discovered  by  Columbus;  in  1493  was  planted 
here  the  first  Spanish  colony.  Its  name  was  then  Hispaniola.  In  1697 
it  became  French,  after  having  for  thirty  years  past  been  the  chosen  home 
of  buccaneers.  From  1790  to  1793  the  blacks  held  a  carnival  of  blood- 
shed by  way  of  outdoing  Paris ;  Toussaint  Louverture  became  Negro 
Dictator,  and  in  1801  independence  was  proclaimed.  From  that  time  to 
this  the  island  has  been  a  byword  for  grotesque  aping  of  white  man's 
government.  In  1844  San  Domingo  seceded  and  formed  a  second  so- 
called  Republic. 

[    224   ] 


SPIRIT   OF  FRANCE   IN   WEST   INDIES 

On  the  occasion  of  my  first  visit  to  that  part  of  the 
world,  Martinique  was  under  quarantine  because  of 
yellow  fever,  so  I  landed  at  Guadeloupe,  its  sister  island 
— a  trifle  larger. 

Martinique  enjoyed  the  blessing  of  having  been 
seized  by  England  during  the  wars  against  the  French 
Revolution,  and  of  having  therefore  escaped  the  po- 
litical chaos  which  followed  the  violent  emancipation 
of  negroes  ordered  by  the  Revolutionary  Government 
of  Paris.  Guadeloupe  did  suffer,  because  she  was  not 
seized  by  England.  Indeed,  there  is  an  element  of  the 
comical  in  the  colonial  development  of  Latin  colonies, 
when  it  appears  that  war  has  blessed  them,  only  when 
it  has  involved  the  defeat  of  the  mother-country !  The 
prosperity  of  Manila  commenced  with  the  English  oc- 
cupation of  1762 — and  of  Havana  the  same  may  be 
said.  The  commercial  prosperity  of  Argentine  dates 
from  the  English  occupation  of  1808,  and  if  Martinique 
is  to-day  richer  than  Guadeloupe  or  Cayenne,  it  may 
be  attributed  to  the  fact  that  England  occupied  the 
one  and  not  the  other. 

At  Guadeloupe  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  negro 
democracy,  which  finds  loud  expression  since  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  French  Republic  in  1870. 

A  mulatto  boatman  had  been  using  offensive  French 
expressions  to  some  fellow  -  passengers  from  New 
York  who  were  disembarking  and  had  entered  rival 
boats  for  the  purpose  of  being  rowed  ashore.  At  that 
time  I  was  on  crutches  from  an  accident  and  remained 
aboard,  but,  observing  the  rudeness  of  this  particular 
boatman,  I  called  the  attention  of  others  to  it,  with  the 
result  that  he  secured  110  patioiiagc  from  our  steamer. 


THE  CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

When  I  had  returned  to  my  long  chair,  and  the 
after-deck  was  deserted  of  everyone  but  myself,  there 
suddenly  appeared  at  the  head  of  the  gangway  the 
head  of  this  same  negro — he  looked  slyly  to  all  sides 
— saw  that  I  was  alone — whipped  out  a  knife,  and 
made  toward  me  with  a  springy  step.  Of  course  I  was 
helpless,  and  my  only  hope  lay  in  sparring  for  time 
— so  I  pretended  that  I  rather  enjoyed  having  my 
throat  cut  and  lay  back  in  my  chair  with  my  eyes  fixed 
on  the  brute.  I  said  nothing.  He  brandished  the 
knife  above  his  head  and  hissed  at  me :  "  Jc  vais  voits 
tiier! " 

"  Tres  bicn!  "  I  said — "  kill  me — and  then  you'll  be 
hanged !  "  My  only  hope  lay  in  treating  the  matter 
as  a  joke — and,  fortunately  for  me,  this  succeeded,  for 
the  man  was  in  a  passion,  and  on  the  spur  of  the  mo- 
ment might  easily  have  been  provoked  into  a  reck- 
less move  which  no  cry  or  action  of  mine  could  have 
prevented.  But  the  wave  of  fury  passed  away  from  him 
as  rapidly  as  it  had  come;  for  the  negro  is  the  same  in 
Guadeloupe  as  in  Mozambique  or  Alabama.  In  two 
minutes  from  his  rush  at  me,  he  was  begging  my  for- 
giveness, and  that  I  would  not  hand  him  over  for  pun- 
ishment. 

At  that  time  I  was  in  no  mood  for  undertaking 
police  reforms,  so  I  exhausted  my  French  vocabulary 
in  a  sermon  on  politeness,  which  my  would-be  mur- 
derer promised  faithfully  to  take  to  heart.  Then  I 
went  ashore  with  him,  and  hobbled  about  Pointe  a 
Pitre — the  chief  town.  It  was  a  little  negro  Paris. 
The  architecture  and  dress  were  characteristic  of  the 
mother- country.  The  colored  women  swept  along  the 
[  226  ] 


SPIRIT   OF   FRANCE   IN    WEST    INDIES 

streets  in  dresses  suggesting  the  Empress  Josephine, 
the  long  train  hung  over  one  arm,  making  a  somewhat 
coquettish  display  of  ankles,  etc.  The  black  women 
were  singularly  graceful  and  well  dressed,  comparing 
favorably  with  those  in  the  English  islands  of  Barba- 
dos and  Antigua.  But  I  saw  mainly  the  result  of 
unnatural  alliances.  Of  course  there  was  the  inevi- 
table kiosque  with  signs  in  French  announcing  dances, 
concerts,  and  the  like;  the  streets  were  named  as  in 
Paris,  and,  of  course,  there  were  the  familiar  little 
tables  under  awnings  outside  of  the  cafes  where  ab- 
sinthe and  sirop  were  being  sipped,  and  French  news- 
papers were  being  read,  and  dominoes  being  played. 

Of  course  I  rested  in  this  little  Parisian  oasis,  and 
a  kindly  French  Creole  gentleman,  who  occupied  the 
next  table,  opened  conversation,  the  burden  of  which 
was,  on  his  part,  that  the  Republic  was  ruining  France 
and  her  colonies  by  throwing  political  power  too  much 
into  the  hands  of  the  negro.  He  told  me  that  all  whites 
thought  as  he  did,  that  Guadeloupe,  as  well  as  Mar- 
tinique, would  soon  revert  to  the  savagery  of  Hayti 
and  San  Domingo,  unless  a  stop  were  put  upon  popu- 
lar franchise  in  a  community  where  blacks  outnum- 
bered the  whites. 

"  Voycz-vous,  monsieur,  wc  Creoles  are  not  repub- 
lican, but  our  government  pretends  that  wc  are.  A 
black  republic  is  an  absurdity — voila  loiil!  " 

I  then  related  my  experience  of  the  morning,  at 
wliich  he  slnnggod  his  sliotiiders.  saying,  ''  Md  foi!" 
"That  is  the  logical  outcome  of  black  democracy."  * 

•  Dr.  DulJois,  of  the  University  of  I'l-misylvnniii,  1ms  in«(l<'  an  rxli.ui^- 
tivc  study  of  llic  negro  in   l'liilail«'l|iliiii  luul  also  in  oilier  places  further 

[    227    I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

My  French  friend  had  praise  only  for  the  Roman 
Catholic  Sisters  of  IMercy,  and  I  felt  with  him  on  this 
subject,  whatever  opinions  I  might  entertain  regard- 
ing the  political  and  theological  machinery  of  which 
they  form  a  part. 

When  I  hobbled  up  to  the  door  of  their  institution 
I  was  welcomed  by  the  Sisters,  who  were  pure  French, 
The  Mother  Superior  introduced  me  to  a  shed  under 
whose  protection  swarmed  hundreds  of  pickaninnies, 
varying  in  shade  from  jet-black  to  the  color  of 
honey. 

They  were  a  delightful  picture  of  chubby,  irrespon- 
sible life — more  amusing  than  a  basket  of  kittens. 
They  all  talked  French — at  least  such  as  were  able  to 
talk  at  all,  and  the  IMother  Superior  put  them  through 
a  little  kindergarten  drill  for  me,  which  consisted 
mainly  in  clapping  their  hands,  singing  French  songs, 
and  marching  around  like  strings  of  ducklings.  At 
this  institution  mothers,  for  a  nominal  sum  per  day, 
left  their  children  to  be  fed,  educated,  and  entertained, 
while  they  themselves  went  about  their  daily  work. 

To  impress  the  children  with  a  sense  of  duty,  the 
Mother  Superior,  a  sweet,  gentle  lady  in  appearance, 
illustrated  once  more  the  common  saying  that  the 
Roman  Church  permits  prevarication  when  it  is  done 

south.  He  says:  "The  great  deficiency  of  the  negro  is  his  small  knowl- 
edge of  the  art  of  organized  social  life — that  last  expression  of  human 
culture.  His  development  in  group  life  was  abruptly  broken  off  by  the 
slave-ship,  directed  into  abnormal  channels,  and  dwarfed  by  the  Black 
Codes,  and  suddenly  wrenched  anew  by  the  Emancipation  Proclamation. 
He  finds  himself,  therefore,  peculiarly  weak  in  that  nice  adaptation  of 
individual  life  to  the  life  of  the  group  which  is  the  essence  of  civilization. 
This  is  shown  in  the  grosser  forms  of  sexual  immorality,  disease,  and 
crime,  and  also  in  the  difficulty  of  race  organization  for  common  ends  in 
economic  or  in  intellectual  lines." 

[    228    ] 


SPIRIT   OF   FRANCE   IN   WEST   INDIES 

in  a  worthy  cause.  She  made  an  address  in  about 
these  words : 

"  Little  children,  you  must  now  be  very  good.  This 
gentleman  has  come  from  far  away  to  see  you.  If  you 
are  not  good,  he  will  carry  you  away  to  Monsieur  de 
Bismarck." 

The  eyes  of  the  little  black  tots  "  bugged  out  "  por- 
tentously at  this  dreadful  threat,  and  I  could  not  but 
think,  at  the  time,  that  M.  de  Bismarck's  would  have 
expanded  equally,  had  I  driven  up  to  the  Rcich- 
skansler  Palais  in  the  Wilhelm  Strasse  with  a 
droschke  load  of  Guadeloupe  pickaninnies  by  way  of 
tribute ! 

But  the  lady's  lie  contained  this  truth :  namely,  the 
fact  that  the  name  of  Bismarck  had  penetrated  to  the 
French  Antilles  as  a  bugaboo  or  Bogey  Man  where- 
with black  babies  were  frightened  into  obedience. 

Guadeloupe  and  Martinique  to-day  send  senators 
and  deputies  to  the  French  Chamber,  and  mulattoes 
preach  a  dangerous  democracy  among  their  concito- 
ycns  of  the  plantations,  whose  conception  of  egalvtc  is 
to  make  a  division  of  the  white  man's  property. 

Thus  much  of  personal  note  I  have  introduced  here, 
merely  to  indicate  the  difference  in  spirit  between  the 
Frenchman  in  the  West  Indies  and  on  the  St.  Law- 
rence. In  both,  his  efforts  have  been  marred  by  too 
free  marriage  or  mingling  with  the  natives — a  min- 
gling which  has  rather  dragged  down  the  while  man 
than  elevated  the  black.  Rut  in  their  origins,  these 
French  islands  have  a  great  advantage  over  Canada. 
The  West  Indies  had,  from  the  very  beginning  of 
Spanish  Dominion,  attracted  the  envious  attention 
I  229  ] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

not  merely  of  rival  governments,  but  of  enterprising 
freebooters,  notably  French,  Dutch,  and  English. 
The  French  Government,  it  is  true,  presented  the 
picture  of  a  monarchy  gradually  crushing  out  repre- 
sentative institutions,  but  this  very  process  converted 
many  of  the  small  gentry  into  outlaws  and  adventur- 
ers. The  wealth  of  the  Spanish  Main,  the  freedom  of 
the  life,  the  exaggerated  stories  regarding  the  ease  of 
living,  the  delicious  climate  and  the  beauty  of  the 
women,  all  these  conspired  to  draw  to  this  part  of  the 
w^orld  a  French  element,  w^hich,  under  happier  polit- 
ical conditions,  would  have  produced  eminent  servants 
of  the  Cro\yn. 

These  Frenchmen  cared  little  for  prying  into  the 
theology  of  their  neighbors,  and  whatever  their  home 
government  might  enact  in  the  way  of  laws  against 
heresy,  there  was  no  power  in  the  West  Indies  strong 
enough  to  execute  them. 

In  1625,  almost  contemporaneously  with  the  formal 
colonization  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  within  a  few 
years  of  the  Dutch  occupation  of  New  York,  an  ad- 
venturous nobleman  of  Normandy  sailed  from  Dieppe 
with  some  fifty  men  and  four  pieces  of  artillery.  He 
reached  St.  Kitts  and  returned  to  France  with  glowing 
accounts  of  what  he  had  discovered.  In  1626  Car- 
dinal Richelieu  granted  to  this  adventurer  both  St. 
Kitts  and  Barbados,  reserving  for  the  Crown  a  tithe 
of  the  products  for  a  period  of  twenty  years.  These 
islands  at  present  are  thoroughly  English,  so  far  as 
they  are  not  United  States  in  sentiment.  But  at  that 
time  they  formed  the  basis  of  Louis  XIV.'s  West  Ind- 
ian Empire.  The  company  was  authorized  to  engage 
[  230  ] 


SPIRIT   OF   FRANCE   IN   WEST   INDIES 

emigrants,  who  were  bound  to  serve  three  years,  prac- 
tically as  white  slaves.  This  was  the  formal  consti- 
tution of  France  in  the  Antilles — an  aristocracy  of 
landlords,  white  serf-labor,  and  Crown-protection  con- 
sisting of  trade  monopoly  with  the  mother-country. 
But  the  progress  under  this  system  was  very  slow,  and 
the  people  of  St.  Kitts  would  have  starved  to  death 
at  one  time  but  for  a  passing  Dutch  ship  loaded  with 
food  supply.  The  Dutch  soon  did  all  the  trade  of  the 
island  in  spite  of  French  penalties  on  the  subject. 

Smuggling  in  the  West  Indies,  to  say  nothing  of 
piracy,  was  immensely  favored  by  the  wonderfully  fine 
weather  prevailing  most  of  the  year;  by  the  steadiness 
of  the  trade  winds,  and  by  the  large  number  of  har- 
bors or  refuges  unknown  to  all  save  those  who  navi- 
gated constantly  those  waters.  Small  craft  with  a 
light  draught,  a  relatively  large  spread  of  canvas,  and 
a  cargo  of  nothing  but  war  material,  and  fighting  men, 
had,  among  the  Antilles,  many  advantages  over  the 
heavily  laden  deep-sea  merchantman  or  man-of-war 
of  those  days.  Spain,  at  the  height  of  her  power, 
found  it  impossible  to  suppress  the  buccaneers,  and  no 
other  country  had  the  same  direct  interest  in  such  an 
object.  The  wealth  of  Spain  and  her  European  wars 
had  created  a  class  of  adventurers  whose  piracy  was 
condoned  so  long  as  it  injured  the  enemy  of  the  mother- 
country.  Thus  the  West  Indies  became  full  of  "  hon- 
est "  pirates  who  scuttled  Spanish  ships  one  day,  car- 
ried on  contraband  trade  the  next,  and  ultimately 
squared  accounts  by  dividing  a  portion  of  their  phni- 
der  with  the  h^rench  Kotnan  Catholic  missionaries  at 
whose  hands  ihcy  received  the  Sacrament. 
I   -M'    I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

That  master  missionary — the  Dominican  Father 
Labat — narrates  somewhere  in  his  delightful  book  on 
the  West  Indies,  that,  during  his  years  in  Guadeloupe 
and  Martinique,  he  never  had  to  spend  a  farthing  on 
altar-cloths  or  other  church  decoration — he  got  all  he 
wanted  through  pious  pirates  on  their  return  from 
plundering  expeditions  along  the  Spanish  IMain. 

Pere  Labat  has  left  a  memory  dear  to  the  French 
Creoles,  and  he  is  worshipped  as  a  god  by  the  blacks 
for  the  vast  amount  of  good  he  did  in  his  day — build- 
ing churches  and  fortifications;  encouraging  trade, 
and,  above  all,  by  judiciously  ignoring  instructions 
from  home. 

The  more  intolerant  France  became,  the  more  ob- 
stinately did  the  West  Indian  French  make  a  virtue 
of  nullifying  acts  of  the  home  government.  The  law 
forbidding  all  but  Catholics  to  colonize  was  repudiated 
by  none  more  contemptuously  than  this  Dominican 
father,  who  wrote  in  a  famous  letter  that  "  he  was  quite 
indifferent  whether  his  sugar-cane  was  grown  by  a 
Lutheran  or  a  Catholic  so  long  as  it  was  good  and 
white." 

It  was  to  a  Jew  (Da  Costa)  from  Brazil,  that  the 
French  West  Indies  owed  the  introduction  of  the 
sugar-cane,  and  the  means  of  manufacturing  it  for 
consumption  (1644).  Respect  for  heretics  w^as  too 
deeply  ingrafted  among  the  orthodox  Creoles  of  Mar- 
tinique for  them  easily  to  adopt  such  narrow  views 
as  were  current  in  Paris.  Piracy,  smuggling,  and  buc- 
caneering proved  for  Louis  XIV.  a  better  colonial 
school  than  any  ever  divined  for  him  by  ministers  of 
state  or  cardinals.  His  West  Indian  colonies  thrived, 
not  by  reason  of  his  protection,  but  in  spite  of  it. 
[  232  ] 


SPIRIT   OF  FRANCE   IN   WEST   INDIES 

In  1635,  one  hundred  years  after  the  discovery  of 
the  St.  Lawrence  by  Cartier,  Louis  XIII.  sought  still 
more  minutely  to  regulate  the  condition  of  his  West 
India  Islands,  and,  above  all,  to  maintain  an  exclusive 
trade  there — which  for  obvious  reasons  was  impossible. 

He  granted  to  the  original  company  of  1626  an  en- 
larged charter  authorizing  them  to  conquer  the  whole 
of  the  West  Indies,  and  to  administer  it  pretty  much 
as  they  pleased,  provided  that  only  Frenchmen  and 
Catholics  be  admitted,  and  that  three  missionaries  be 
allotted  to  each  settlement:  that  efiforts  be  made  to 
convert  the  natives,  and  that  in  the  following  twenty 
years  4,000  emigrants  be  colonized  there  from  France. 

The  Christianizing  clause  was  the  signal  for  a  gen- 
eral massacre  of  natives  under  the  plea  that  they  re- 
sisted missionary  entreaty,  and  by  1642  the  company 
announced  that  already  7,000  Frenchmen  had  colo- 
nized. 

Thanks  to  the  freedom  that  flourished,  in  spite  of 
Louis,  the  population  was  of  a  most  varied  and  useful 
kind,  and  under  the  influence  of  the  local  self-govern- 
ment of  the  buccaneers  the  Creole  community  rapidly 
fused  into  a  body  politic  in  which  all  did  a  share  for 
the  common  good,  and  no  one  class  lorded  it  over 
the  rest. 

There  was  from  the  outset  an  abundant  supply  of 
white  labor,  which  consisted  of  the  very  unfortunate, 
who  accepted  three  years  of  slavery  as  a  means  of  se- 
curing ultimate  independence  under  bettor  political 
conditions.  The  dignity  of  white  labor  was  recog- 
nized at  tbe  outset,  ])ul  afterward,  when  the  manu- 
facture (>[  sugar  became  I  lie  .ibsorbing  in(hislry,  and 
when  all  the  iilaiilalions  were  given  over  to  this  one 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

industry,  and  when  African  negroes  were  introduced 
and  made  a  part  of  the  great  industrial  machine,  and, 
above  all,  when  the  social  position  of  a  planter  came 
to  be  measured  by  the  number  of  slaves  he  possessed, 
then  white  labor  ceased  to  be  respectable,  and  blacks 
became  the  exclusive  tillers  of  the  soil. 

The  plough  disappeared  with  the  arrival  of  the 
negro  and  the  sugar-mil] — and  while  more  money  was 
made  on  the  plantations,  French  writers  lament  the 
decay  in  political  virtue  which  resulted  from  the  accu- 
mulation of  large  fortunes  in  few  hands. 

Adam  Smith,  as  well  as  others,  noticed  that  in  the 
French  Islands  slavery  was  less  harsh  than  elsewhere. 
No  doubt  the  Church  must  be  credited  with  this 
blessed  result,  and  in  a  second  degree  the  fact  that 
the  French  planter  lived  more  intimately  with  the 
natives  than  did  the  Englishman. 


[  234  ] 


XXII 

THE   WEST   INDIES   TWO    HUNDRED  YEARS 

AGO 

De  Pradt,  Archbishop  of  Ma  lines  \born  I'J^g  and  died  iSjy'\, 
in  his  work  on  colonies  : 

"  Negro  labor  is  indispensable  in  colonies. 

"  Either  you  must  use  negroes  or  abandon  the  colonies. 

**  I  can  no  more  think  of  San  Domingo  without  negroes  than  Brie 
without  plows. ^^ — Vol.  I.,  p.  259. 

Voyage   of  Pere    Labat — Extraordinary    Luxury — Treatment    of 

Natives 

DOES  anyone  seek  luxury  of  living  on  the  high 
seas — let  him  not  look  for  it  on  the  modern 
steamer,  but  on  sailing  ships.    Such  has  been 
my  experience — which,  if  anybody  question,  let  him 
consult  the  Dominican  missionary  (Labat)  as  to  how 
he  fared,  in    1693,  on  his  sixty  days'   voyage  from 
France  to  the  West  Indies.     He  writes  of  the  daily  fare : 
"  When  Mass  was  said,  we  sat  down  to  breakfast. 
We  had   usually   ham,  or  a  'pdtc'  with  a  'ragout,' 
or  a  'fricassee' ;  butter  and  cheese,  and  '  surtoiit  dc 
trts  bun  vin,'  and  bread,  fresh  morning  and  evening." 
Dinner  was  served  immediately  after  the  observation 
at  noon,  and  consisted  of  a  "  grand  potage  aire  Ic 
boulli  qui  ctaii  loujouis  d'line  I'olaillc,  tine  poitrine  de 
bccuf   d'irlandc,    dn    petit    s(de,    et    du    iiioiiton,   on   dii 
I  ^35  J 


THE  CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

veaii  frais,  accompagne  d'une  fricassee  de  poidets,  ou 
autre  chose." 

This  was  followed  by  "  un  plat  de  rati,  deux  ragouts 
et  deux  saladcs;  pour  le  dessert  nous  avons  du  frontage, 
quelques  compotes,  des  fruits  cms,  des  marrons  et 
dcs  confitures." 

Our  epicure  goes  on  to  explain  how  it  is  that  salad 
appears  so  often,  by  telling  us  that  they  had  on  board, 
.  .  .  "  bonne  provision  de  beteraves,  de  pourpier, 
de  cresson,  et  de  cornichons  confits,"  and  two  big 
beds  of  '*  cliicoree  sauvage  en  tcrrc,"  which  latter  were 
deemed  so  precious  that  the  captain  ordered  a  sentinel 
to  watch  them  day  and  night  lest  sailors  or  rats  mo- 
lested them.  And  when  one  box  of  salad  was  used  up : 
"  Nous  y  semdmes  dcs  graines  de  laitues  et  de  raves 
que  nous  y  eumcs  le  plaisir  de  voir  croUre  et  de 
manger  avant  d^ar river  a  la  Martinique."  "  And  thus 
it  was,"  says  he,  "  that  we  never  wanted  salad,  a  re- 
freshing treat  to  which  no  one  can  be  indifferent  on 
long  journeys."  Amen,  say  I,  and  the  echo  of  this 
Amen,  I  can  imagine  coming  from  every  traveller  who 
has  sat  down,  day  after  day,  to  the  steamer's  meals  of 
bad  coffee,  bad  eggs,  bad  butter,  bad  potatoes,  bad 
everything;  and  always  apologized  for  by  the  stew- 
ards, on  the  ground  that,  "  It's  very  hard  to  keep 
things  fresh,  etc.,"  a  feeble  bit  of  mendacity  that  de- 
ceives no  one  but  him  who  is  making  his  first  voyage. 
Pere  Labat's  supper  was  commonly,  "  nne  grande 
soupe  avec  une  poule  dessus;  deux  plats  de  roti,  deux 
ragouts,  deux  salades  et  le  dessert."  As  the  reverend 
gentleman  has  passed  into  history  as  an  excellent 
judge  of  what  should  appear  at  table,  it  is  worth  add- 
[  236  ] 


THE   WEST    INDIES   200   YEARS   AGO 

ing  that,  in  his  opinion,  the  meals  were  "  parfaitemcnt 
bien  scrvie  ct  avcc  bcaiicoup  de  propricte."  As  there 
were  twelve  at  table,  the  captain  appointed  their 
seats  to  them,  in  order  that  they  might  always  have 
their  own  napkins,  which  we  learn  were  changed  tzuice 
a  week. 

Who  would  not  to-day  be  satisfied  with  half  the 
luxury  accorded  the  poor  missionary  of  two  hundred 
years  ago ! 

And  as  to  wines — they  lived  in  a  community  that 
even  Horace  could  not  have  complained  of;  for  each, 
with  one  exception,  brought  a  goodly  supply  of  his 
own.  They  tossed  the  keys  of  their  wine-chests  over- 
board and  made  a  common  cellar.  Our  apostolic 
epicure  tells,  with  gusto,  how  they  teased  the  one  ex- 
ception in  their  convivial  twelve.  He  was  the  super- 
cargo. One  fine  day  the  balance  of  the  mess  got  into 
his  wine-chest,  drank  up  his  stock,  and  refilled  his 
flagons  with  salt-water! 

Labat  wasted  no  charity  on  the  English  and  tells 
this  story  of  their  alleged  barbarity,  based  upon  the 
testimony  of  "  ■teinoins  octilaires  ct  dignes  de  foi"; 
that  they  were  in  the  habit  of  executing  such  negroes 
and  Indians  as  had  offended  them,  by  passing  them 
through  the  crushers  of  the  sugar-mill,  as  we  pass  wet 
garments  through  a  clothes  wringer — the  victims  be- 
ing tortured,  inch  by  inch,  as  the  horrible  cylinders 
revolved.  "  Je  nc  sais  si  on  pent  i)iventcr  uii  supflice 
plus  affrenx!  " 

"  Say  what  you  will  of  iron-works,  glass-works,  and 
other  such  industries,"  remarks  this  missionary, 
"  there  arc  none  worse  (han  a  sugar-mill;  for  the  first- 
(   ^\^7  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

mentioned  exact  but  twelve  hours'  work  a  day,  but 
this  last  exacts  eighteen,  and  of  the  six  hours  allowed 
these  wretches,  you  must  deduct  the  time  for  supper 
and  frequently  the  time  they  have  to  spend  in  hunting 
crabs,  for  many  masters  give  their  slaves  only  a  little 
magnoc  fiour." 

Labat  says  that  the  slaves  were  called  half  an  hour 
before  day  so  as  to  be  ready  for  morning  prayers, 
which  function  sometimes  required  a  considerable  time, 
because  in  the  "  maisons  bien  re  glees  on  fait  tin  petit 
CatecJiisme  pour  les  nouveaux  ncgres  qu'on  dispose 
an  baptcme,  on  mix  autres  sacremens,  qitand  ils  sont 
baptise:::' 

Those  who  were  to  work  at  the  sugar-works,  either 
the  furnaces,  the  boiling-house,  or  the  mill,  went  there 
and  remained  until  six  o'clock  at  night,  working  con- 
tinually, and  not  being  allowed  a  single  minute  for 
meal  time;  whatever  they  got  being  gulped  down  in 
snatches  while  they  continued  their  work,  under  the 
lash  of  the  overseer. 

The  pious  father  not  liking  to  have  his  slaves  "  foi- 
bles et  chancelans  faiite  d'lm  petit  secojirs,"  sent  them 
at  noon  a  dish  of  farina  mixed  with  bouillon,  a  piece 
of  salt  meat,  and  some  vegetables,  accompanying  it 
with  "  i<n  coup  d'eau  de  vie,"  by  which,  no  doubt,  he 
got  better  work  from  his  hands. 

He  also  fed  all  the  little  children  at  noon,  relieving 
the  parents  of  this  necessity,  so  that  when  the  day's 
work  was  over,  the  mothers  had  but  to  hunt  their  babes 
amidst  the  soft  crushed  cane,  "  ott  ils  les  troiwaient 
endormis,  pour  les  porter  coiicher  a  leiirs  cases" 

Great  indignation  bursts  from  Pere  Labat,  when  he 
[  238  ] 


THE   WEST   INDIES   200   YEARS   AGO 

tells  his  readers  that  silk  culture  had  been  abandoned 
in  the  West  Indies  in  1694,  and  abandoned  simply  be- 
cause ants  and  other  nuisances  had  fastened  to  the 
eggs  and  cocoons  and  injured  them.  "  But,"  says  he, 
"  we  could  in  the  past,  we  can  now,  and  it  will  always 
be  easy  in  the  future,  to  check  this  evil,  and  as  we  have 
found  means  of  protecting  many  other  things  from  the 
ravages  of  these  pests,  so  shall  we  also  protect  the  silk- 
worm." And  he  foresees  great  profit  from  this  culture, 
because  the  climate  promises  a  continual  crop,  the 
mulberry-trees  having  always  leaves,  and  the  eggs, 
therefore,  being  able  to  hatch  as  soon  as  made.  With 
bitterness,  Labat  tells  how  "  Lc  Sieur  Piquet  dc  la 
Celle  Commis,  Principal  dc  la  Compagnie  dc  1664," 
joined  with  his  wife,  both  being  from  Provence,  in  the 
making  of  silk,  and  did  so  well  that  he  sent  some  skeins 
to  Colbert,  "  Ce  Ministrc  incomparable,"  who  showed 
them  to  Louis  XIV.,  with  the  result  that  the  good 
colonists  received  from  the  Grand  Monarch  five 
hundred  ecus,  equivalent  to  about  1,500  francs  of 
modern  money,  which  was  primarily  intended  to  en- 
courage the  Provencal  couple  in  their  good  work  and 
establish  a  valuable  outlet  for  fresh  capital  and  in- 
dustry. 

"  Nothing  in  the  world,"  says  this  Reverend  Econ- 
omist, "  would  have  been  better  for  the  kingdom  and 
our  colonies,  for  we  would  then  have  found  at  home 
what  we  now  get  from  strangers  who  enrich  them- 
selves at  our  expense." 

In  1699  the  tobacco-loving  world  was  paralyzed  by 
the  conclusion  reached  by  the  Medical  College  of 
France,  to  wit,  that  the  use  of  tobacco  shortened  life, 
I  239  ] 


THE   CHILDREN    OF   THE   NATIONS 

and,  for  the  moment,  those  who  Hved  by  trading  in 
this  small  vice,  thought  that  they  had  nothing  but 
bankruptcy  before  them.  "  For,"  says  Labat,  philo- 
sophically, "  tout  le  mondc  vent  vivre,  et  comment 
esperer  nnc  longuc  vie  apres  iin  arrest  si  solonnel?  " 

But  the  general  panic  was  allayed,  according  to  our 
reverend  historian,  by  calHng  the  attention  of  the  pub- 
lic to  the  singular  fact,  that  the  gentleman  who  sus- 
tained most  conspicuously  that  tobacco  was  a  deadly 
weed  ignored  in  an  equally  striking  manner  the  pre- 
cepts he  laid  down  for  others.  We  are  told  that  "  son 
nez  n'etait  pas  d'accord  avec  so  langiie:  car  on  rcmarqita, 
que  pendant  tout  le  temps  que  Facte  dura,  il  ent  toiijonrs 
sa  tabatiere  a  la  main,  et  ne  cessa  pas  nn  moment  de 
prendre  du  tabac." 

With  this,  a  reaction  set  in,  and,  to  believe  our  cler- 
ical friend,  the  present  use  of  tobacco  is  infantile  com- 
pared to  what  prevailed  in  the  golden  age  of  French 
letters.  People  used  the  drug  then  "  avec  une  espece 
de  fiireur,  qui  ne  permit  plus  de  distinguer  ni  Ics  lieux, 
ni  les  iemps,  ni  les  ages,  ni  les  sexes,  ni  les  temper a- 
maits,  ni  les  personnes."  People  indulged  in  snuff  in 
walking,  talking,  eating — even  at  their  prayers — and 
some  were  known  to  wake  up  in  the  night  in  order  to 
have  a  pinch.  People  wondered  they  had  lived  so  long 
without  tobacco,  and  became  convinced  that  they 
w^ould  die  if  they  ceased  to  use  it.  "  People  went  so 
far  as  to  use  snuff  in  church,  in  the  very  presence  of 
God.  whom  one  adores  there,  and  the  Sacrifice  re- 
doubtable which  is  offered  there  not  being  enough  to 
inspire  the  proper  respect  and  attention  that  believing 
Christians  should  have."  Some  Popes  launched 
[  240  ] 


THE   WEST    INDIES   200    YEARS   AGO 

Bulls  at  the  practice,  but  it  ended,  needless  to  say,  in 
Smoke ! 

Labat  visited  Grenada  in  1700  on  his  way  from  Bar- 
bados, and  the  contrast  to  him  was  so  painful  that  he 
could  not  but  give  vent  to  his  disgust.  '*  The  Eng- 
lish," he  says,  "  are  far  ahead  of  us  in  taking  advantage 
of  their  opportunities,  and  if  Grenada  belonged  to 
them  it  would  long  ago  have  altered  appearance  and 
become  a  rich  and  mighty  colony.  Instead  of  this 
we  have  done  nothing  to  take  advantage  of  what  we 
have  here,  and  in  spite  of  the  many  years  we  have 
been  in  possession,  the  country  is  still  uncultivated,  ill- 
populated,  without  comforts,  without  trade,  poor,  its 
houses,  or  I  should  say  rather  huts,  badly  built  and 
worse  furnished — in  short,  almost  in  the  condition 
they  were  in  originally  (1650)  when  M.  du  Parquet 
bought  the  island  from  the  Caribs." 

The  wine  merchant  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  ap- 
pears to  have  had  a  conscience  differing  but  slightly 
from  that  of  his  descendant,  for  Labat,  who  under- 
stood what  a  good  cellar  meant,  says  that  no  West 
Indian  should  buy  Bordeaux  wines  from  merely  look- 
ing at  the  labels — he  should  taste  them  himself.  The 
consumption  of  wine,  he  says,  was  enormous  in  his 
day,  and  he  dares  not  repeat  what  the  customs  officers 
told  him  under  this  head,  lest  he  be  "  suspected  of  ex- 
aggeration." He  drank  there  not  only  the  Bordeaux 
and  Cahors  brands,  but  also  those  of  rrovence,  Laii- 
;gucdoc,  Italy,  Spain,  Madeira,  Canary,  Portugal,  tlu' 
Rhine,  Ncckar,  Moselle,  liingmidy,  and  Chanipa,i;iu' 
— a  goodly  assortment  for  thai  day. 

As  to  "  Eau-dc-vic,  rl  </<■  Ionics  sorlcs  dc  litjiiriirs," 
I  241   ] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

both  French  and  foreign,  "  la  consommation  qui  s'cn 
faii  passe  r imagination;  tout  le  monde  en  vciit  boire, 
le  prix  est  la  derniere  chose  de  quoi  on  sinforme!  " 

This  part  of  the  world  must  have  been  the  paradise 
of  traders  in  1694,  for  Labat  wrote:  "  Lcs  toiles  les 
plus  fines,  Ics  plus  belles  mousselines,  et  les  mieux 
travaillccs,  les  perruqucs  les  plus  a  la  mode,  les 
cJiapcaux  de  castor,  les  bas  de  soye  et  de  laine,  les 
soldier,  les  bottines,  les  draps,  de  -  iottte  espece,  les 
etoffes  de  soye,  d'or  ct  d' argent,  les  galons  d'or,  les 
Cannes,  les  tabaticres  et  aiitres  seniblablcs  bijoux;  les 
denielles  les  plus  fines,  les  coiffures  de  fenime,  de 
quelque  prix  qu'clle  puissent  etre,  la  vaisselle  d'argent, 
les  montres,  les  pierreries,  en  un  mot,  iout  ce  qui  pent 
servir  a  Vhabillement  des  honuncs,  a  l anieublement 
et  ornement  des  maisons,  et  surtout  aux  parures  des 
femmes;  tout  est  bien  vendu  chcrcnicnt  et  proniptenient." 

"  For,"  continues  our  philosophic  celibate,  "  the  sex 
is  the  same  all  the  world  over;  vain,  wayward,  ambi- 
tious. The  tradespeople  have  no  fear  of  losing  when 
they  sell  to  them  for  their  particular  purposes,  for  if 
their  husbands  are  a  little  difficile  on  this  point,  elks 
ont  toutes  naturcllemeni  des  talens  mcrveilleux  pour 
les  mettre  a  la  raison,  et  qttand  ccla  manque,  elks 
saz'cnt  en  perfection  faire  dii  siicre,  de  I'indigo,  on  du 
cacao  de  Lune  avec  quoi  elles  contentent  les  mar- 
chands,  qui  accoutiimes  a  ces  manoeuvres  leur  pretent  la 
main  et  leur  gardent  religieusement  le  secret." 

This  making  of  sugar,  etc.,  de  Lune  was  the  ex- 
pression in  that  day  for  making  it  illegally,  or  more 
plainly  for  stealing  it,  and  the  recording  friar  tells  us 
that  wives  in  the  French  islands  never  told  their  hus- 
[  242  ] 


THE   WEST   INDIES   200   YEARS   AGO 

bands  by  any  accident  the  real  price  of  what  they 
bought,  but  made  up  the  difference  to  the  tradespeo- 
ple by  conniving  with  them  to  steal  from  the  planta- 
tion produce  at  night.  The  term  "  moonlighting," 
as  used  in  the  regions  where  illicit  whiskey  is  made, 
helps  one  to  appreciate  the  origin  of  the  term. 

Pere  Labat  said,  in  1700:  "  The  air  of  St.  Kitts  is 
very  pure,  the  result  of  which  is  that  good  blood  is 
produced  there,  the  complexion  of  the  women  is  ad- 
mirable and  their  features  most  regular.  Both  sexes 
are  full  of  wit  and  vivacity,  and  they  all  have  perfect 
figures."  An  old  proverb  had  it  that  St.  Kitts  pro- 
duced nobility;  Guadelupe  the  bourgeois;  soldiers  in 
Martinique,  and  peasants  in  Grenada. 

The  monkeys  that  now  form  such  a  feature  of  the 
islands,  notably  in  the  ruins  of  old  Fort  Charles,  are 
said  to  have  had  their  beginning  in  a  number  of  tame 
ones  that  were  released  from  private  dwellings  in  one 
of  the  numerous  early  wars.  Even  in  Labat's  time 
they  were  a  great  plague  by  their  clever  thieving,  and 
when  he  went  on  a  shooting  party  after  them,  he  and 
his  friends  had  some  of  the  feelings  associated  with 
driving  out  a  common  enemy.  But,  in  spite  of  their 
roguery,  the  priest's  heart  was  touched  when  he  found 
that  he  had  shot  a  mother  whose  monkey  baby  clung 
to  her  neck  even  after  she  was  dead  and  could  with  dif- 
ficulty be  removed.  This  little  monkey  was,  however, 
laken  home  and  turned  out  a  deligiitful  little  com- 
panion. 

His  friend,  Pcrc  Cabasson,  had  a  monkey  so  devoted 
to  him  that  he  would  never  leave  iiini,  and  when  the 
I'crc  had  to  go  to  his  elmn  li  service  he  would  lock  up 
[  243  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

his  monkey  in  his  study  to  prevent  his  following. 
Once  the  monkey  escaped,  and  having,  it  seems,  con- 
cealed himself  above  the  pulpit,  did  not  show  himself 
until  the  sermon  commenced.  Then  coming  out  to 
the  edge  of  the  pulpit  roof,  he  watched  his  master  care- 
fully and  commenced  to  imitate  his  gestures — at  which 
the  congregation  naturally  laughed.  Father  Cabasson, 
who  did  not  dream  of  the  source  of  this  entertainment, 
reproved  them,  at  first  in  moderate  tones;  but  find- 
ing that  shouts  of  laughter  grew  in  intensity  as  he 
progressed  his  displeasure  took  the  shape  of  sainte 
colcrc,  and  he  began  a  most  energetic  crusade  against 
their  want  of  respect  for  the  word  of  God.  His  gest- 
ures grew  more  violent,  so  did  the  grimaces  and  post- 
ures of  the  monkey,  and  so  did  the  laughter  of  his 
congregation.  His  attention  was  finally  called  to  his 
monkey,  and  at  this  he  could  not  help  joining  in  the 
laugh  with  the  rest.  There  was  no  means  of  getting 
at  the  animal,  and  he  therefore,  on  the  spot,  dismissed 
the  congregation:  "  netant  plus  liii-meme  en  etat  de  le 
continue}-,  ni  les  auditeiirs  de  recoiiter." 

A  priest  so  conversant  with  the  world  and  the  flesh 
as  Father  Labat  can  never  fail  to  interest  when  describ- 
ing social  features  of  life.  He  was  an  admirer  of  the 
English  in  many  respects — perhaps  the  best  evidence 
we  have  of  this  is  the  detailed  manner  in  which  he 
tells  his  countrymen  how  British  houses  might  be 
pillaged. 

In  St.  Kitts  he  enjoyed  English  hospitality  and  car- 
ried away  some  impressions,  such  as  that  the  good 
people  here  had  handsome  punch-bowls,  understood 
the  ingredients  very  well,  and  how  to  entertain  their 
[  244  ] 


THE   WEST   INDIES   200   YEARS  AGO 

friends  about  it — a  feature  of  St.  Kitts  which  years 
have  in  no  wise  dimmed. 

The  English  ladies,  he  observed,  carved  with  much 
skill  and  grace,  and  stimulated  their  guests  to  drink  by 
setting  them  a  good  example  in  this  respect.  This  I 
hope  is  exaggeration. 

Of  the  men  he  says  that,  "  As  they  are  all  rich  they 
love  to  display  their  generous  way  of  living,  and  have 
their  cellars  well  stocked  with  a  great  variety  of  wines 
from  the  most  distant  corners  of  the  earth." 

He  noticed  at  dinners  that  Englishmen  treated  their 
clergymen  with  scant  consideration,  and  adds,  "  Jc  nc 
sais  si  c'est  par  irrcligion,  on  si  c'cst  la  conduite  dcs 
ministres  qui  leur  attire  ce  mepris.'' 

Of  the  adorable  St.  Kitts  ladies  he  says,  "  Lcs  fcm- 
mes  Anglaiscs  soiit  habillccs  a  la  Frangaisc,  du  nioins 
leurs  habillcments  en  approchent  bcaiicoiip.  lis  soiit 
riches  et  magnifiqiic  ct  scraicni  d'un  trcs  hon  gout, 
si  elles  n'y  meiiaicnt  ricii  du  lour;  mais  commc  cllcs 
veulent  toujours  enchcrir  sur  lcs  modes  qui  vienncnt  de 
France,  ccs  hors-d'oeuvres  gdtent  toute  la  simctrie  et  le  bon 
gout  qui  s'y  irouverait  sans  cela." 

He  says  also  that  he  never  in  his  life  saw  more 
{ranges  d'or,  d'argent,  ct  de  soye  quit  y  en  avait  sur 
CCS  dames  " — in  fact  he  describes  tlicm  as  being  decked 
in  them  from  head  to  foot,  although  he  admits  that 
their  linen  is  very  fine — also  their  lace. 


[  245  ] 


XXIII 

COLONIAL  FRANCE   TO-DAY 

*'  Everywhere  in  our  \^FrencF\  Colonies  we  have  formed  excellent 
native  troops.  In  Algeria  you  have  seen  them.  It  is  the  same  in 
Senegambia  and  the  Soudan.  They  are  loyal  and  admirable  sol- 
diers with  whom  I  have  made  all  my  different  expeditions.  In 
Indo-  China  we  have  also  had  good  results — notably  with  the  Anna- 
mites  and  Tonquinese.^^ — Extract  from  a  letter  by  the  eminent 
soldier  and  explorer  Colonel  Monteil  of  the  French  army. 

Desire  for  Colonies,  Why  Unsuccessful — Excellence  as  Mis- 
sionaries, Italian  Emigrants. 

SINCE  the  Franco-German  War  the  French  na- 
tion has  sought  consolation  in  colonial  expan- 
sion, and  the  French  flag  now  flies  over  an  im- 
mense area  of  northern  and  tropical  Africa,  Tonquin, 
and  parts  of  Polynesia.*  France  now,  as  in  the  days 
of  Champlain,  shows  no  lack  of  venturesome  spirits, 
and  the  annals  of  modern  exploration  contain  few 
names  more  glorious  than  that  of  Colonel  Monteil. 
But,  though  France  in  her  colonies  shows  to-day 
greater  liberality  than  in  the  time  of  Louis  XIV.,  she 
yet  reflects  the  failings  of  the  mother  country  to  an 

*  Colonial  France  means  more  than  three  and  a  half  million  of  square 
miles,  with  more  than  55,000,000  of  inhabitants.  This  luxury  cost 
France  in  1898  more  than  $20,000,000.  Germany  owns  about  1,000,000 
square  miles  of  colony  with  nearly  10,000,000  population,  and  this  cost 
her  in  1898  about  $5,000,000.  These  sums  may  be  regarded  as  the 
price  per  year  of  such  colonial  glory — for  in  neither  case  is  the  trade  in- 
volved commensurate  with  the  military  and  administrative  cost. 

[    246   ] 


COLONIAL  FRANCE   TO-DAY 

extent  which  depresses  her  own  most  serious  writers 
on  the  subject. 

Leroy-Beaulieu,  speaking  of  French  Guiana  and  the 
penal  colony  which  recently  contained  Captain  Drey- 
fus, noted  that  in  the  forty-six  years  from  1817  to  1863, 
the  Government  had  changed  the  official  head  of  the 
settlement  on  an  average  more  frequently  than  once  in 
two  years.  Out  of  a  budget  of  1,000,000  francs,  less 
than  100,000  was  spent  for  the  colony,  all  the  remain- 
der going  into  the  pockets  of  officials. 

In  a  population  numbering  only  20,000  altogether, 
1,000  were  Government  officials — and  this  not  count- 
ing soldiers  and  sailors. 

"  Not  only  was  there  no  municipal  or  provincial 
representation;  there  was  no  press,  and  even  the  right 
of  petition  was  refused  to  the  inhabitants."  ("  Dc  la 
Colonisation,''  p.  523.) 

Next  door  to  French  Guiana  was  British  Guiana 
flourishing  under  a  healthy  representative  administra- 
tion while  Cayenne  pined  away  under  the  suffocating 
influence  of  too  much  officialism. 

The  excellent  roads  which  the  French  have  built  in 
Northern  Africa,  and,  above  all,  the  vast  sums  ex- 
pended on  railway  construction  and  military  effective- 
ness, prove  that  France  is  thoroughly  in  earnest  from 
an  administrative  point  of  view.  The  general  com- 
manding the  division  of  Oran  told  me  (hat  he  regarded 
the  railway  as  the  main  civilizing  instrnniciil  of  h^rancc, 
that  we  must  li;ivc  jKilicncc  and  faith  in  llic  fntine, 
that  savage  lii1)cs  ulio  now  prowled  on  the  Hanks  of 
caravan  (-(jlnnnis  would  nltimatcly  give  up  nomadic 
life  and  till  the;  soil,  when  tin-  locomotive  should  have 
I   ~\7  I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

demonstrated  that  brigandage  was  no  longer  profit- 
able or  even  possible. 

The  French  nation  has  shown  itself  strangely  sus- 
ceptible to  far-reaching  projects  and  ideals  far  re- 
moved from  mere  gain.  To  the  more  sober  Anglo- 
Saxon  they  sometimes  appear  visionary.  It  was  at  the 
despotic  court  of  Louis  XV.  that  republican  philos- 
ophy became  first  fashionable  in  Europe — it  was  in 
the  salons  of  the  aristocrats  that  the  guillotine  of  the 
Revolution  was  whetted. 

Napoleon  I.  dazzled  a  people  whom  he  enslaved  by 
phrases  and  the  dream  of  universal  empire,  while  in 
our  day  Republican  France  hails  the  Russian  Czar  as 
protector.  She  develops  vast  military  energy  and 
popular  enthusiasm  in  acquiring  colonies  which  pro- 
duce no  revenue,  but  flatter  the  rising  generation,  who 
think  that  the  size  of  a  country  is  the  measure  of  its 
importance.  The  French  are  proverbially  reluctant  to 
leave  their  country,  even  as  tourists.  Yet  in  no  other 
country  does  the  public  mind  occupy  itself  so  much 
with  the  military  and  official  side  of  colonization.  The 
Frenchman,  impatient  of  military  routine  at  home,  has 
but  to  plunge  into  the  African  wilderness,  and  plant 
the  flag  of  his  country  in  some  lonely  place,  to  be  im- 
mediately recognized  by  the  press  as  a  notable  person. 
Should  it  happen  that  the  flag  was  inadvertently  stuck 
into  soil  already  occupied  by  England,  and  should  his 
action  be  resented  in  London,  he  returns  not  merely 
a  hero,  but  something  of  a  martyr  as  well.  On  his  way 
to  Paris  deputations  from  the  various  towns  greet  him 
with  wreaths  and  brass  bands.  The  press  finds  in  his 
glorious  failure  a  text  from  which  to  preach  upon  the 
[  248  ] 


COLONIAL   FRANCE   TO-DAY 

greed  of  "  perfidious  Albion,"  and  thus  new  fuel  is 
added  to  the  popular  fires  of  colonial  zeal. 

Northern  Africa  is  dear  to  the  Frenchman,  for  it 
represents  the  soil  on  which  his  armies  have  fought 
from  the  Pyramids  to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules.  He 
has  done  much  for  Egypt;  notably  was  it  a  French- 
man who  built  the  Suez  Canal  in  1869.  But  it  was 
English  shipping  which  made  it  profitable,  and  it  was 
ultimately  England  to  whom  Egypt  owed  the  capture 
of  Khartoum,  and  good  administration  throughout 
the  valley  of  the  Nile. 

Algiers  is  but  a  few  hours'  sail  from  the  South  of 
France,  and  Tunis  not  much  further.  Here  is  the  field 
in  which  we  might  look  for  a  prosperous  French  peas- 
antry under  climatic  conditions  but  slightly  different 
from  those  prevailing  in  Provence  or  Gascony.  Yet 
to-day  it  is  not  the  Frenchman,  but  the  Italian  and  the 
Spaniard  who  furnish  the  language  of  the  white  man 
for  this  part  of  the  world.  There  are  French  cafes  in 
the  towns,  and  the  little  round  tables  are  occupied  by 
French  officials;  French  uniforms  are  on  all  sides,  and 
the  French  flag  waves  over  the  Government  buildings. 
That  flag  is  a  blessing  to  the  country  so  far  as  it  means 
good  roads,  efficient  police,  courts  of  justice,  harbor 
works,  and  other  necessary  expenditure.  But  from  a 
colonial  point  of  view  Spain  and  Italy  are  the  coun- 
tries directly  benefited  rather  than  France. 

Italy  to-day  has  no  colonics,  yet  she  is  one  of  the 
most  prolific  of  countries,  and  sends  forth  annually 
thousands  of  her  hardy  people  to  New  York,  Buenos 
Ayrcs,  and  Norlhcni  Africa,  lo  say  nothing  of  tlu-  large 
number  who  liiid  temporary  employment  in  I'rancc, 
[  249  1 


THE  CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

Switzerland,  Hungary,  and  Austria.  Many  of  her 
statesmen  deplore  this  state  of  things,  and  dream  of 
a  better  day  when  Italy  shall  have  a  colony  of  her  own 
inhabited  solely  by  Italians  and  governed  exclusively 
by  the  home  government. 

It  was  this  false  point  of  view  which  encouraged 
that  disastrous  attempt  against  Abyssinia  in  1896.  It 
w^as  the  same  false  philosophy  which  made  Bismarck 
discourage  Germans  from  emigrating  to  America. 
Fortunately  for  Italy  she  has  to-day  neither  the  money 
nor  the  power  to  attempt  Bismarckian  schemes  of  colo- 
nization, much  less  to  compete  with  France  in  the 
military  administration  of  distant  countries.  She  must 
perforce  witness  ship  after  ship  load  of  her  hardy  peas- 
antry sailing  away  to  distant  countries,  carrying  not 
merely  their  little  savings,  but  their  strong  arms  and 
future  hopes. 

Italy  to-day  pines  for  colonies  and  regrets  that  she 
cannot  prevent  emigration  by  the  same  measures 
which  James  I.  used  to  discourage  Puritans  from  leav- 
ing England. 

But  that  which  ofificial  Italy  does  not  do  to-day  will 
in  less  than  fifty  years  prove  a  greater  blessing  than 
anything  we  can  possibly  imagine  her  to  have  done 
through  the  instrumentality  of  her  army  or  navy. 

The  Italy  that  is  reproducing  itself  under  the  French 
flag  in  Africa,  under  the  American  flag  on  the  banks 
of  the  Hudson,  or  in  far-away  settlements  of  South 
America — that  is  an  Italy  which  in  the  next  generation 
will  help  to  build  up  the  commerce  of  the  mother  coun- 
try to  a  degree  little  dreamed  of  by  those  who  now  look 
upon  every  emigrant  as  a  loss  to  the  country  of  his 
birth. 

[  250  ] 


COLONIAL   FRANCE   TO-DAY 

France  is  doing  a  great  work  in  the  civilization  of 
the  world,  notably  among  inferior  races.  Her  mis- 
sionaries are  more  successful  than  ours,  and,  whether 
in  the  backwoods  of  Canada,  among  the  negroes  of 
the  West  Indies,  or  in  the  Far  East,  the  Frenchman 
has  to  a  remarkable  degree  shown  a  capacity  to  live 
the  life  of  the  subject  race,  and  acquire  personal  ascen- 
dancy over  him. 

The  history  of  the  French  in  India  has  been  fre- 
quently noted  by  English  historians  as  a  notable  in- 
stance of  failure  on  the  eve  of  a  great  triumph,  for  at 
one  time  France,  with  a  handful  of  clever  negotiators 
and  enterprising  soldiers,  had  apparently  mastered  the 
land  of  the  Great  Mogul. 

Yet  the  French  administration  in  India  crumbled  to 
pieces  under  the  quick  strokes  of  a  handful  of  English- 
men with  the  same  startling  completeness  which  char- 
acterized her  loss  of  Canada  at  about  the  same  time 
(1759).  And  the  reasons  were  roughly  analogous — 
persisting  to  this  day.  The  Frenchman  is  a  brave  sol- 
dier, and  his  fellow-citizens  have  a  passion  for  detailed 
administration.  They  conquer  and  they  govern,  but 
they  do  not  colonize.  When  they  govern  they  govern 
too  much.  They  are  suspicious  of  native  initiative  and 
distrustful  of  colonial  self-government. 

It  does,  indeed,  seem  as  though  history  rejoiced  in 
paradoxes,  when  we  have  to  note  thai  the  Scandina- 
vians, the  Germans,  and  the  Italian  people,  without 
colonies  worth  mentioning,  send  forth  annually  a 
powerful  stream  of  hmnanity  (o  enrich  other  countries 
— and  that  France,  with  her  vast  colonial  jiosscssions, 
should  show  herself  capable  of  producing  nearly  every- 
thing but  colonies. 

[  -'51    I 


XXIV 

THE   SPREAD   OF   RUSSIA 


"  The  Russian  is  a  delightful  person  till  he  tucks  his  shirt  in.^' 

"It  is  only  when  he  insists  upon  being  treated  as  the  most  east- 
erly of  western  peoples,  instead  of  the  most  westerly  of  easterns, 
that  he  becomes  a  racial  anomaly  extremely  difficult  to  handle. ' ' — 
Kipling,  "The  Man  Who  Was." 

The  Colonization  of  Siberia — Conflict  Between  China  and 
Russia 

RUSSIA  resembles  the  United  States  in  the 
extent  to  which  she  has  spread  her  people 
and  her  institutions  from  sea  to  sea  across  a 
continent.  But  there  the  resemblance  stops.  Every 
foot  of  North  American  soil  has  been  conquered  by 
free  men  who  have  marked  every  stage  of  their  prog- 
ress by  free  schools  and  representative  government. 
From  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  Hudson's  Bay  and  from 
Newfoundland  to  the  Golden  Gate,  the  march  of 
Anglo-Saxon  colonization  has  been  in  this  century 
one  of  human  liberty  and  of  English  language  and  in- 
stitutions. Liberty  tempered  by  the  common  law  has 
produced  over  this  vast  area  a  practical  homogeneity 
of  social  and  political  life,  unprecedented  in  the  history 
of  the  world.  Looked  at  from  a  distance — say  the 
standpoint  of  the  Russians — there  is  less  dissimilarity 
[  252  ] 


THE   SPREAD   OF   RUSSIA 

between  Manitoba  and  Minnesota,  New  York  and 
Ontario,  than  between  almost  any  two  of  Russia's 
great  provinces,  which  from  an  English  or  American 
point  of  view  seem  monotonously  like  one  another. 

The  colonizing  movement  of  Russia  commenced 
three  centuries  ago  and  even  earlier.  Successive  Mus- 
covite emperors  suppressed  the  independence  of  neigh- 
boring states,  and  then  proceeded  to  spread  religious 
and  political  orthodoxy  by  such  brutal  methods  that 
the  few  who  were  able  took  refuge  in  the  wilderness, 
banding  themselves  for  offensive  and  defensive  pur- 
poses. 

In  this  way  arose  the  Cossack  communities  which 
for  generations  maintained  their  liberties  as  against 
the  home  government,  and  proved  a  strong  attraction 
to  those  who  were  compelled  to  fly  from  the  injustice 
of  their  home  government. 

Peter  the  Great  did  not  die  till  1729,  which  shows 
us  that  up  to  that  time  the  government  of  Russia  had 
but  little  to  distinguish  it  from  that  of  semi-savage 
tribes,  whose  liberties  are  at  the  mercy  of  a  monster 
• — half  monkey,  half  maniac  —  exercising  authority 
through  the  superstitious  reverence  inspired  by  a  cun- 
ning priesthood. 

Step  by  step  the  Ru.ssian  iMnpirc  has  enlarged  its 
area,  and  each  successive  stc|)  has  been  marked  by 
the  crushing  out  of  national  independence  and  |)cr- 
sonal  liberty.  Three  iCuropean  commimities  has  Rus- 
sia incor|)oralc(l,  ami  she  has  sought  to  drag  eni-h 
down  to  her  own  level — I  refer  to  the  I'oles,  the  I-'iiuis, 
and  the  Ciernians  of  the  r.allic  i'rovinces.  llistory 
furnislies  few  i)arallel  examples  of  an  inferior  civiliza- 
[  253  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

tion  so  situated  geographically  as  to  crush  out  in  de- 
tail the  superior  civilization  of  so  many  neighboring 
communities.  It  was  the  good  fortune  of  Russia  to 
have  as  an  ally  in  the  crushing  of  Poland  the  cordial 
assistance  of  the  Prussian  Monarchy,  through  succes- 
sive reigns,  so  that  the  refugee  Poles,  when  defeated  in 
their  own  country,  found  the  frontiers  of  Prussia  as  in- 
hospitable as  those  of  Russia.  Finland  became  a  Rus- 
sian province  through  a  bargain  with  Napoleon  the 
Great,  and  the  German  Provinces  on  the  Baltic  are 
being  de-Germanized  by  Russian  priests  and  police- 
men, because  the  German  Empire  is  so  busy  maintain- 
ing its  rights  on  the  other  side  of  the  earth  that  it  can- 
not feel  its  children  tugging  at  the  very  skirts  of  the 
mother  country. 

For  the  colonization  which  Russia  undertakes  she 
has  facilities  of  an  exceptional  kind.  The  mere  fact 
that  out  of  100,000,000  Russians  there  are  some  99,- 
000,000  who  can  neither  read  nor  write,  is  of  incal- 
culable value  to  an  administration  like  that  which  the 
Holy  Czar  represents.  The  Russian  peasant,  as  he 
crouches  in  the  furrow  munching  his  noon-day  crust, 
resembles  some  animal  just  emerged  from  a  burrow 
— essentially  akin  to  the  soil  he  inhabits.  Of  him 
pre-eminently  are  the  words  of  Edwin  Markham  ap- 
phcable  when  apostrophizing  "  The  Man  with  a  Hoe." 

"  The  emptiness  of  ages  in  his  face, 
And  on  his  back  the  burden  of  the  world. " 

Russian  history  amply  answers  the  poet's  fierce 
query  : 

"  Whose  was  the  hand  that  slanted  back  his  brow? 
Whose  breath  blew  out  the  light  within  this  brain  ?  " 

[   254  ] 


THE   SPREAD  OF  RUSSIA 

With  99,000,000  of  two-legged  creatures  on  the  so- 
cial and  intellectual  level  of  domestic  cattle,  coloniza- 
tion on  the  Russian  plan  cannot  fail  to  succeed.  The 
priest  gives  the  order  in  the  name  of  the  Czar,  and 
whole  families  transport  themselves  to  Siberia  with  as 
little  concern  for  the  future  as  a  car-load  of  oxen  on 
their  way  to  Kansas  City. 

These  colonists  squat  in  the  furrows  of  Siberia  with 
the  same  rabbit-like  fitness  of  color  that  they  show  in 
the  fields  about  Moscow,  or  in  the  sandy  wastes  be- 
tween Petersburg  and  Vilna.  The  parish  priest  goes 
with  them,  and  the  same  communistic  village  com- 
munity reproduces  itself  on  the  banks  of  the  Amoor 
as  on  those  of  the  Volga. 

Russia  is  anything  but  an  over-populated  country,* 
and  Siberia  is  not  a  California  or  a  Johannesburg.  The 
Czar  has  moved  his  people  eastward  for  political  and 
strategic  reasons,  because  he  required  an  army  of 
occupation  and  the  cheapest  army  was  the  one  which 
handled  the  hoe  as  well  as  the  rifle. 

The  aristocracy  of  this  army  consisted  in  fugitives 
from  justice  or  criminals  deported  for  political  or  other 
crimes.  The  total  number  it  is  no  more  possible  to 
establish  than  the  number  of  Americans  who  crossed 
the  Mississippi  River  fifty  years  ago  in  search  of  Pike's 
Peak.  It  is  sufficient,  though,  for  us  to  know  that 
more  than  1,000,000  have  been  deported,  according  to 
official  returns,  since  the  beginning  of  that  system, 
and  that  many  more  have  gone  thither  of  tlicir  own 
accord  to  escape  the  Metropolitan  police.    In  the  Rus- 

*  Kussia  controls  about  ti'n^hl  imd  a  lialf  millions  of  S(|iiarc  niili-s  ami  a 
population  of  nciirly  I  jo.oihj.ooo.  l''citliinMlcly  for  civili/.ution  tlu"  power 
uf  un  urniy  is  not  nicusurcil  by  niinibcts  only. 

I    -'55   I 


THE  CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

sian  army  it  has  been  the  rule  to  allow  no  Pole  to 
rise  to  any  position  of  importance  so  long  as  he  re- 
mained in  Poland.  If  he  wishes  to  have  a  military 
career  it  must  be  far  away,  against  Asiatic  tribes  where 
no  love  of  his  own  people  can  interfere  with  the  allegi- 
ance due  to  the  Czar.  The  reason  for  this  is  to  be 
sought  in  the  fear  of  a  Polish  rising.  Consequently 
Russian  officers  command  in  Poland,  while  Polish  of- 
ficers are  to  be  found  mainly  to  the  eastward  of  the 
Black  Sea. 

The  Czar  is  aided  in  his  colonial  work  by  being  not 
merely  the  nominal,  but  the  actual  head  of  his  Church, 
Every  peasant's  hut,  every  boat,  the  waiting-room  of 
every  railway  station — indeed,  nearly  every  available 
spot  in  the  Russian  Empire  has  an  Eikon  or  religious 
tablet,  dedicated  to  the  Czar  as  the  head  of  the  Russian 
Church.  In  the  upper  walks  of  this  Church  are  schol- 
ars and  politicians  of  the  first  rank,  and  at  the  bottom 
is  a  priesthood  closely  in  sympathy  with  peasant  life 
and  superstition.  The  parish  priest  of  Russia  knows 
a  little  more  than  the  peasant — not  much.  He  tills 
the  ground  like  the  peasant;  enjoys  his  glass  of 
brandy,  and  makes  no  pretension  of  belonging  to  a 
higher  social  stratum.  Any  superiority  he  arrogates 
is  exclusively  that  of  his  license  to  perform  clerical 
functions,  and,  above  all,  to  get  a  few  fees  from  the 
credulous  by  squirting  holy  water  over  pigs  and  cows 
in  order  to  prevent  disease. 

In  a  third-class  carriage  on  the  way  from  Odessa 
to  Kiev,  I  found  myself  once  in  the  midst  of  a  mixed 
company  of  peasants,  two  priests,  and  a  partially  in- 
toxicated Polish  pedler.  The  priests  were  communi- 
[  256  ] 


THE   SPREAD   OF   RUSSIA 

cative  and  I  asked  them,  since  they  understood  no 
French  or  German,  whether  they  could  talk  Latin? 
They  shook  their  heads,  and  the  Polish  pedler  then 
took  off  his  hat,  held  it  up  to  the  forty-odd  fellow-pas- 
sengers, and  shouted  after  the  manner  of  a  prestidigi- 
tator: "  Is  there  anything  in  that  hat?  " 

There  was  an  answering  shout  of  "  No." 

"  Then  my  hat  is  just  as  full  as  a  priest's  head," — at 
which  there  was  a  hearty  laugh  in  which  the  priests 
joined ! 

A  priesthood  of  this  nature,  whose  grasp  of  civiliza- 
tion reaches  little  beyond  a  brandy  bottle  and  an 
Eikon,  has  great  advantages  in  certain  forms  of  colo- 
nization over  men  who  represent  generations  of  men- 
tal and  physical  breeding. 

To  somewhat  the  same  degree  the  Russian  official, 
military  and  civil,  lends  himself  readily  to  a  life  of 
rough  frontier  work  among  half-civilized  natives.  The 
Russian  uniform  frequently  masks  a  man  little  better 
than  a  serf;  for  while  Russia  has  in  her  military  ser- 
vice, as  in  her  Church,  a  small  elite  of  highly  present- 
able men,  mainly  of  Polish  or  German  ancestry,  the 
average  Russian  officer  shares  the  weaknesses  and  the 
virtues  of  the  Slav.  He  is  essentially  an  easy-going 
nature,  fond  of  food  and  drink,  and  readily  mingles 
with  his  fellow-men  of  every  grade. 

One  morning,  l)ctwccn  Petersburg  and  Novogorod. 
I  awoke  in  a  railway  carriage  to  find  a  Russian  major 
in  uniform  rolling  on  the  floor  with  a  f.it  civilian, 
whom  he  was  hugging  and  kissing  in  maudlin  nijiturc. 
They  were  both  luippily  dnnik.  The  civilian  was  a 
forage  oontrnclor,  and  the  major  belonged  to  a  rcgi- 
I   257  1 


THE  CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

ment  of  which  the  German  Emperor  is  honorary  colo- 
nel, and  among  whose  officers  I  had  some  acquaint- 
ances. The  extraordinary  thing  about  this  drunken 
episode  was  not  so  much  that  an  officer  should  appear 
drunk  in  public,  as  that  his  brother  officers  should  re- 
gard the  matter  as  something  quite  usual. 

No  other  European  power  has  sought  to  fuse  with 
Chinese.  The  Russian  is  doing  it  and  is  moderately 
successful. 

In  Eastern  Siberia  are  many  tribes  that  bridge  over 
the  ethnological  difference  between  the  Caucasian  and 
the  Oriental,  and  thus  Russia  has  at  hand  useful  agents 
for  her  administrative  pioneering. 

For  more  than  a  century  the  Czar  has  maintained 
at  Pekin  a  mission  consisting  of  ten  priests  who  have 
carefully  abstained  from  missionary  work,  but  have 
furnished  their  Government  w'ith  information  on  what 
was  going  on  about  them. 

When  I  reached  Chefoo,  opposite  Port  Arthur,  in 
1898,  I  met  there  a  delightfully  sociable  Russian  colo- 
nel, who  took  great  interest  in  my  movements,  and  was 
apparently  visiting  Cheefoo  for  his  health.  On  in- 
quiry I  found  that  he  had  been  for  years  stationed 
there  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  act  as  a  government 
spy  at  that  point  of  the  Chinese  coast. 

Russia  to-day  affords  the  most  complete  picture  of 
administrative  colonization  on  record.  No  other  coun- 
try has  the  same  number  of  tame  human  creatures 
which  can  be  moved  upon  the  political  chess-board 
according  to  orders  from  one  centre.  Other  countries 
would  gladly  do  it,  but  their  rulers  lack  either  the 
power  or  the  territory.  The  Trans-Siberian  railway 
[  258  ] 


THE   SPREAD  OF  RUSSIA 


promises  to  make  her  Asiatic  conquest  still  more  com- 
plete by  carrying  the  centre  of  population  further  away 
from  Moscow.  We  are  now  only  on  the  threshold  of 
Russian  power  in  Asia.  Only  in  our  day  has  the  stage 
of  violent  conquest  ceased — the  next  will  see  vast  en- 
gineering works — land  improved  by  means  of  irriga- 
tion, more  railways,  and  other  improvements  in  the 
way  of  transportation,  new  cities  and  centres  of  com- 
mercial life.  Schools  must  follow  and  universities  as 
well,  if  only  to  supply  the  professional  needs  of  the 
Government. 

We  cannot  suppose  that  this  vast  country  will  re- 
main, as  it  now  is,  merely  a  desert  of  official  monotony 
with  an  occasional  oasis  of  Polish  exiles.  Time  is  not 
far  away  when  the  people  of  Siberia  will  challenge 
those  of  Russia  proper,  as  do  the  people  of  the  Ameri- 
can West  challenge  the  old  States  of  New  England. 
Commercial  interests  will  clash,  and  the  problem  of 
despotism  will  become  the  more  difficult  in  proportion 
as  population  increases  in  intelligence  at  a  greater  and 
greater  distance  from  the  capital. 

Will  Russia  over- run  China  and  India?  Possibly, 
but  not  under  her  present  form  of  government.  The 
Chinese  as  well  as  the  natives  of  the  British  East  Indies 
arc  not  wholly  without  some  knowledge  of  the  relative 
merits  of  European  powers,  and  as  time  goes  on  this 
knowledge  will  increase  rather  than  otherwise.  The 
fact  that  to-day  Cliina  cof|ucts  with  Russia,  and  that 
the  Emir  of  Afghanistan  is  ambiguously  loyal  to  the 
British  Crown  is  no  criterion  of  what  would  happen 
in  case  Russia  seriously  attempted  the  absoriilioii  of 
either  India  or  China. 

[  259  ] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

Russia  may  occupy  Kandahar,  and  even  fly  her  flag 
over  Pekin.  She  can  do  that  according  to  her  present 
colonizing  programme,  and  the  world  need  not  regret 
the  change  of  ownership.  But  beyond  that  the  ma- 
chinery of  the  Czar  will  prove  inadequate  unless  the 
nations  themselves  invite  Russia  to  become  master 
among  them.  India  supports  the  rule  of  England  be- 
cause no  considerable  portion  of  that  population  can 
see  their  advantage  in  making  a  change.  But  even 
those  who  like  British  dominion  least  would  suffer 
much  more,  rather  than  shift  from  under  the  present 
yoke  to  that  of  Russia. 

And  in  China  the  people  are  likely  to  be  influenced 
by  much  the  same  line  of  reasoning.  Under  the  Eng- 
lish flag,  Chinese  trade  has  expanded  enormously  and 
Chinese  life  and  property  have  been  safe;  more  than 
that,  the  Chinaman  has  enjoyed  a  personal  liberty 
equal  to  that  of  white  men.  He  is  not  likely  to  wish 
a  change  to  Russian  rule,  and  the  more  he  studies  the 
matter  the  more  inclined  will  he  be  to  create  obstacles 
in  the  path  of  Russia  rather  than  to  assist  in  any  further 
Russification  of  his  country. 

The  Japanese  of  to-day  entertain  aversion  to  Rus- 
sia because  of  her  having  (1875)  annexed  a  Japanese 
island,  Saghalien,  and  having  added  insult  to  injury 
by  making  it  a  dumping  ground  for  criminals.  The 
Japanese  also  maintain  a  species  of  "  Monroe  Doc- 
trine "  in  regard  to  European  interference  with  things 
Chinese,  particularly  in  Corea,  which  the  Japanese  re- 
gard as  jealously  as  the  United  States  do  Alexico. 

On  my  visit  to  Corea,  I  found  Seoul  practically  a 
Japanese  settlement,  and,  considering  the  nearness  of 
[  260  ] 


THE  SPREAD   OF   RUSSIA 

Corea  to  China,  it  is  not  strange  that  the  Mikado 
should  look  with  suspicion  upon  any  move  likely  to 
make  Russia  his  neighbor  at  that  point. 

The  last  quarter  of  a  century  has  seen  the  awakening 
of  the  Far  East  to  a  sense  of  national  responsibility. 
Japan  has  led  the  way,  and  has  now  an  army  and  navy 
and  civil  administration  which  make  her  to-day  the 
strongest  fighting  force  in  the  world,  in  proportion  to 
her  population. 

China,  on  the  other  hand,  is  one  of  the  weakest. 
The  Chinese-Japanese  War  of  1894-5  was  of  great  im- 
portance to  Europe,  in  that  it  established  the  ascen- 
dancy of  Japan  over  China;  convinced  the  Chinese 
that  they  must  make  internal  reforms,  and  led  them 
to  seek  support  in  Japan  rather  than  in  Europe. 

The  basis  of  Chinese  and  Japanese  understanding 
was  laid  during  that  war — a  war  which  has  left  friend- 
ship, not  bitterness,  behind. 

In  1898  China  sent  no  less  than  thirty  military  rep- 
resentatives to  the  Japanese  army  manoeuvres,  and 
these  fraternized  with  the  Japanese  officers  in  a  signifi- 
cant manner. 

Russian  colonization,  then,  so  far  as  it  is  administra- 
tive and  military,  is  nearing  its  limits.  Each  day  makes 
her  progress  more  difficult,  each  day  creates  a  stronger 
national  opposition  in  China,  each  move  brings  the 
Russian  serf  face  to  face  with  a  denser  and  less  malle- 
able population.  The  task  of  Russia  is  a  large  one 
— simply  to  j)rcvcnt  her  I'lmpire  from  falling  to  i)icocs, 
under  the  weight  of  f)fficial  ignorance  and  corrni)tii>n. 

ivussia  has  done  marvellous  colonizing  work  whore 
resistance  has  been  sliglil.  She  has  spread  herself  suc- 
I    -'(.I    I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

cessfully  among  barbarous  tribes,  but  has  failed  com- 
pletely in  commanding  the  respect  of  Poles,  Finns,  or 
Germans. 

The  failure  of  her  methods  at  the  westernmost  end 
of  her  Empire  will  be  repeated  in  the  Far  East,  should 
she  seek  to  match  the  Moudjik  against  the  crafty  and 
tenacious  Chinaman.  For  tasks  of  this  nature  instru- 
ments are  needed  such  as  are  not  forged  in  the  work- 
shops of  Holy  Russia. 


[  262  ] 


XXV 

THE   BEGINNINGS   OF  ENGLISH  COLONIZA- 
TION IN   AMERICA 

"  Imperial  (^British')  Federation,  and  the  Expansion  of  the 
United  States  are  facts  which  .  .  .  are  secondary  in  impor- 
tance to  nothing  contemporaneous.^^ — Mahan,  "The  War  in  South 
Africa,"  p.  80. 

Settlement  of  Virginia,  New  England,  Barbados — Capacity  of 
English  for  Self-government 

ENGLISHMEN  commenced  founding  perma- 
nent colonies  in  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth, 
and  we  are  still  at  the  same  work.  England 
has,  in  times  past,  enacted  for  the  government  of  her 
colonies  laws  quite  as  oppressive  as  those  of  Spain  and 
has  sought  to  enforce  by  violence  a  respect  for  them. 
Fortunately  for  our  race  she  has  rarely  succeeded 
more  than  momentarily  in  such  efiforts.  She  who 
broke  the  power  of  Spain  and  wrested  Canada  from 
France,  who  treated  Portugal  as  a  vassal  state  and 
reduced  Holland  to  a  minor  power,  this  same  proud 
mistress  of  the  seas  was  over  and  over  again  checked 
and  mortified  by  a  handful  of  her  own  children,  who, 
whether  in  Jiarbados  or  Massachusetts,  Maryland  or 
Virginia,  defended  their  political  liberties  with  the 
stubbf^rnness  and  sagacity  of  colonial  Croniwrlls. 
if,  as  wc  have  seen,  bianco,  Portugal,  and  Holland 
[  263  ] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

owe  their  most  vigorous  colonizing  success  to  irregu- 
lar, not  to  say  illegal,  beginnings,  it  is  still  more  note- 
worthy that  England's  empire  on  the  Western  Hemi- 
sphere was  laid  by  Englishmen  animated  not  merely  by 
a  love  of  liberty  common  to  mankind,  but  by  a  respect 
for  constituted  authority  and  by  a  capacity  for  political 
organization  almost  unknown  elsewhere  at  that  time. 
It  is  the  proudest  triumph  of  Great  Britain  that  she 
has  sent  forth  her  children  into  the  wilderness,  or- 
ganized from  the  very  start  in  self-governing  political 
units. 

In  the  France  which  I  can  recall  as  a  child,  citizens 
were  forbidden  to  assemble  together  for  the  discussion 
of  political  questions,  and  the  press  could  print  only 
what  was  permitted  by  the  police.  When  the  Franco- 
German  War  made  a  republic  of  this  helplessly 
brought-up  body,  men  were  suddenly  called  to  office 
by  popular  vote  who  had,  as  a  rule,  less  practical  ex- 
perience of  parliamentary  forms  than  the  average 
Anglo-Saxon  school-boy.  In  Spain  the  republic  of 
Castelar  was  a  mere  debating  society  so  far  as  its  rep- 
resentative capacity  was  concerned.  In  Germany  the 
feeble  beginnings  of  Parliamentary  government  were 
from  the  outset  (1848),  and  continue  to  be  (1901) 
overshadowed  by  a  very  large  and  very-well  organized 
force  of  soldiers  and  semi-military  officials  who  look 
for  their  authority  not  to  the  representatives  of  the 
people,  but  to  the  one  who  commands  the  fighting 
forces.  In  Europe,  England  is  the  only  great  power 
whose  people  govern  themselves,  and  it  is  the  only 
great  power  whose  colonies  have  risen  up  to  comfort 
her  declining  years. 

[  264  ] 


ENGLISH    COLONIZATION    IN  AMERICA 

The  beginnings  of  English  adventure  in  far-away 
seas,  were,  like  those  of  Holland,  influenced  mainly  by 
a  desire  to  encroach  upon  the  fabulous  possessions  of 
Spain  and  Portugal.  North  America  was  looked  to 
not  as  a  colonizing  field,  but  merely  as  a  stage  on  the 
way  to  the  East  Indies,  and  many  early  English  navi- 
gators enriched  geographical  science,  but  wasted  much 
money,  in  seeking  through  the  Polar  Seas  a  North- 
west Passage  to  the  land  of  the  Great  Mogul. 

In  1577,  Sir  Francis  Drake  started  on  the  voyage 
which  made  him  the  first  Englishman  to  sail  round  the 
world.  It  was  a  grand  achievement,  geographically, 
but  politically  even  more  notable  from  the  extent  to 
which  he  filled  his  ship  with  Spanish  gold,  and  spread 
alarm  up  and  down  the  coasts  of  South  America. 
Spain  protested  energetically,  but  as  her  claims  rested 
upon  the  bull  of  a  theological  ruler  whose  authority 
Queen  Elizal)eth  as  a  Protestant  did  not  recognize,  it 
followed  logically  that,  as  she  told  the  Spanish  envoy, 
she  would  recognize  Spain's  right  only  where  there 
was  actual  occupation. 

In  1584,  Elizabeth  endowed  Sir  Walter  Raleigh 
with  the  right  to  colonize  every  unoccupied  part  of 
America,  in  language  marking  distinctly  the  great  gulf 
between  Spanish  and  English  colonial  methods.  II cr 
words  were:  "  The  colonists  have  all  the  privileges  of 
free  denizens  and  persons  native  of  England,  in  such 
ample  manner  as  if  Ihcy  were  born  and  jjcrsonaliy  resi- 
dent in  our  .said  realm  of  h'ngland." 

Under  illiberal  govcrmnent  and  among  helpless  peo- 
ple, her  charter  might  be  abused,  but  with  coloinsts 
such  as  her  times  prodtucd,  there  was  ambiguity 
[  205  ] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

enough  to  guarantee  as  much  self-government  and 
rehgious  hberty  as  the  colonists  themselves  deemed 
expedient.  The  destruction  of  the  Spanish  Armada 
in  1588,  gave  England  the  control  of  the  seas,  at  least 
in  the  North  Atlantic,  and  thus  contributed  enor- 
mously to  tlie  fostering  of  peaceful  colonial  schemes, 
as  contradistinguished  from  those  involving  perpetual 
warfare  with  Spain  in  South  America,  or  Portugal  and 
Holland  in  the  East  Indies.  It  w^as  obviously  appre- 
ciated, even  at  court,  that  English  colonial  companies 
did  their  ample  duty  as  subjects  of  the  Crown,  if  they 
placed  a  check,  to  however  small  an  extent,  upon  Span- 
ish expansion  from  the  south  and  French  expansion 
from  the  north,  to  say  nothing  of  the  colonial  wedge 
that  Holland  and  Sweden  threatened  to  drive  between 
New  England  and  Maryland. 

In  1607,  Jamestown,  in  Virginia,  was  settled  by  the 
assistance  of  an  English  company,  which  transported 
thither  one  hundred  and  five  colonists,  half  of  whom 
were  ''  gentlemen,"  but  with  only  a  small  sprinkling 
of  mechanics,  and  only  twelve  agricultural  laborers. 
The  beginnings  were  not  encouraging  in  this  case,  for 
these  colonists  came  in  anticipation  of  finding  life 
easy.  On  the  contrary,  they  found  swamp  fever  and 
a  breed  of  Indians  that  possessed  neither  treasures 
worth  plundering  nor  qualities  fitting  them  to  be  en- 
slaved. But  the  settlement  was  not  abandoned,  and 
each  year  brought  an  accretion  of  membership.  The 
company  clamored  for  dividends,  but  got  none;  the 
colonists,  on  the  other  hand,  found  that,  though  they 
had  to  work  hard,  they  had  before  them  the  prospect 
of  independence  if  not  fortune,  and  thus  from  the  out- 
[  266  ] 


ENGLISH   COLONIZATION   IN  AMERICA 

set  the  community  developed  a  government  which, 
while  it  reflected  somewhat  that  of  a  landed  aristoc- 
racy, nevertheless  had  enough  of  self-government  to 
make  every  man  in  it  feel  a  pride  in  the  future  of  the 
commonwealth.  There  was  a  refreshing  absence  of 
legislation  hostile  to  aliens  or  unorthodox  creeds;  and 
though,  under  the  vicissitudes  of  domestic  legislation, 
many  illiberal  laws  were  passed  at  Westminster,  they 
were  never  able  to  over-ride  the  unwritten  constitu- 
tion of  the  colonies  on  the  subject  of  religious  and  po- 
litical liberty.  In  1619,  before  the  first  Puritan  had 
landed  in  Massachusetts,  the  Virginia  colony  had  al- 
ready a  population  of  4,000  whites  and  an  annually  con- 
vened legislature,  which  had  already  taken  steps  for 
establishing  schools  and  churches — even  going  so  far 
as  to  make  ordinances  against  luxury. 

The  first  negro  slaves  came  in  a  Dutch  ship  in  1619 
— a  cargo  fraught  with  curse  to  America.  The  com- 
pany which  nominally  owned  the  colony  was  already 
(1621)  compelled  to  surrender  its  right  to  make  laws 
excepting  with  the  consent  of  the  colonial  legislature. 
The  English  common  law  was  declared  that  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  this  happy  state  of  political  security  was  the 
means  of  attracting  a  steady  stream  of  excellent  new- 
comers, not  merely  from  the  moliier  country,  but  from 
Germany,  France,  Poland,  and  wherever  tyranny 
drove  men  away  from  home. 

Virginia  was  a  total  failure  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  chartered  company  which  foimdcd  it,  for  the  suc- 
cess of  that  company  could  be  measured  only  by  the 
dividends  of  sharc-hohlcrs.  In  \CyJ4  it  was  dissolved, 
after  having  spent   £150,000  and    transported  9,000 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

colonists  to  Chesapeake  Bay.  The  dissolution  of  the 
company  affected,  however,  only  the  share-holders,  for 
the  colony  itself  was  both  self-governing  and  self-sup- 
porting, and  went  on  flourishing  in  spite  of  all  vicis- 
situdes of  the  English  Crown  at  home,  and  colonial 
troubles  occasioned  by  Indians  and  other  plagues. 

In  1620  came  a  colonial  cargo  from  England,  like- 
wise under  license  of  a  '*  chartered  "'  company,  but,  no 
less  than  Virginia,  resolved  to  govern  itself.  The  little 
Mayflower  reached  the  shores  of  Massachusetts  Bay 
on  November  11,  1620,  and  was  permitted  to  remain 
there,  although  the  King  would  give  them  no  charter, 
and  accident  had  driven  them  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
Virginia  Company,  which  had  originally  granted  them 
right  of  settlement.  They  survived  the  winter,  at  least 
forty-nine  did,  out  of  the  one  hundred.  At  one  time  all 
but  seven  were  laid  low  on  the  sick-bed,  and  there  were 
hardly  strong  men  enough  to  bury  the  dead.  For  a 
whole  year  they  were  there  alone,  a  little  spark  of  hu- 
manity that  seemed  momentarily  at  the  point  of  being 
stamped  out. 

In  November  of  1621  arrived  the  first  relief-ship, 
bringing  fifty  more  English.  From  the  outset  they 
governed  themselves  completely.  The  commercial 
company  from  whom  they  held  their  title  did  all  in 
their  power  to  extract  dividends  out  of  this  community 
— but  with  scant  success.  The  development  of  the 
community  was  very  slow — in  ten  years  it  had  but  a 
population  of  three  hundred  all  told,  for  that  portion 
of  New  England  was  not  attractive  to  the  agricultu- 
rists, nor  to  anyone  else  who  sought  in  a  colony  more 
than  what  the  Puritans  did. 

[  268  ] 


ENGLISH   COLONIZATION   IN  AMERICA 

But  in  1629  things  took  a  turn  for  the  better,  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  became  a  self-governing  company  by 
Royal  Charter  of  Charles  L,  and  thenceforth  com- 
menced to  attract  emigration.  In  1630  arrived  1,500 
colonists.  In  1634  there  were  4,000  whites  in  Massa- 
chusetts, scattered  over  twenty  villages.  From  now  on 
the  progress  of  New  England  was  uninterrupted,  the 
parent  colony  soon  furnishing  the  means  of  settling 
farther  and  farther  inland  and  westward,  until  the  Puri- 
tans came  in  conflict  with  the  Dutch  on  the  Hudson 
River  and  made  their  occupation  so  insecure  and 
profitless,  that  when  finally  (in  1664)  the  English  flag 
was  hoisted  over  New  York,  the  transfer  occasioned 
no  bloodshed.  On  the  contrary,  the  Dutchmen  re- 
mained for  the  most  part  contented  with  the  new  order 
of  things,  for  under  it  they  enjoyed  freedom  of  worship 
and  still  ampler  freedom  of  trade  with  their  neighbors. 
We  must  not  forget  that,  although  from  the  outset 
the  English  in  North  America  enjoyed  practical  if  not 
nominal  self-government,  the  impulse  to  colonial  vent- 
ures was  given  by  large  privileged  or  "  Chartered  " 
Companies,  which  anticipated,  even  though  they  did 
not  often  realize,  handsome  dividends  from  the  taxes 
they  intended  laying  on  colonial  industry.  There  was 
much  lobbying  at  the  court  of  King  James  and  of 
Charles  I.  for  gifts  of  land  in  the  new  world,  and  (liosc 
chronically  impecunious  monarchs  were  not  loalh  lo 
raise  money  by  tlie  granting  of  favors  that  cost  thoni 
nothing  but  a  piece  of  parcbnicnl.  I'orluuatfly  for  the 
sturdy  men  that  settled  these  tracts,  their  aristocratic 
jandh^rds  had  so  much  to  do  wilh  lighting  contlicting 
claims  in  the  law  conrts  ;il  home  and  willi  raising 
[  2('V   I 


THE  CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

money  for  necessary  administration,  that  they  were 
forced  to  neglect  the  internal  affairs  of  their  respective 
colonies  for  a  long  time. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  detail  here  the  history  of 
English  occupation  in  North  America — merely  to 
trace  an  outline  and  to  point  out  that  from  the  first 
occupation  of  the  colonies,  which  subsequently  be- 
came the  thirteen  Independent  States  of  1776,  the  dif- 
ferent communities,  while  pretty  constantly  quarrel- 
ling, if  not  fighting,  among  themselves,  were  generally 
united  in  resenting  the  slightest  infringement  of  their 
chartered  rights  by  the  mother  country.  The  privi- 
leged companies  which  had  originally  organized  for 
the  purpose  of  exploiting  them,  one  by  one  found  the 
task  unprofitable,  went  into  liquidation,  or  retired  from 
active  control.  By  the  opening  of  the  seventeenth 
century  the  various  colonies  had  already  shown  that 
they  understood  their  joint  as  well  as  their  several  in- 
terests: and,  though  no  union  was  made  on  paper,  the 
representatives  had  already  met  to  confer  upon  mat- 
ters of  common  colonial  welfare. 

The  West  Indies  were  geographically  too  remote 
to  act  in  common  with  the  colonies  properly  called 
American:  but,  as  they  were  founded  at  about  the 
same  time,  and  organized  the  same  forms  of  self-gov- 
ernment, they  had  their  share  in  spreading  the  spirit 
of  colonial  independence  which  culminated  in  1776. 

Barbados,  for  instance,  was  granted  in  1624  to  a 
court  favorite,  but  long  before  that  it  had  been  settled 
by  independent  Englishmen,  who  governed  them- 
selves and  proved  capable  of  taking  care  of  their  inter- 
ests, even  to  repelling  invasions  of  Spaniards  or  French. 
[  270  I 


ENGLISH   COLONIZATION   IN  AMERICA 

To-day  little  Barbados,  no  bigger  than  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  has  the  densest  population  of  any  country  in 
the  world,  and  affords  a  cheering  picture  of  white 
man's  capacity  to  conduct  a  white  man's  government 
in  the  tropics.  For  nearly  four  centuries  has  that  little 
tropical  islet  afforded  religious  and  political  hberty, 
under  a  government  which  not  only  cared  for  internal 
development,  but  proved  equal  to  resisting  the  many 
attacks  to  which  it  was  exposed  by  the  quarrels  of  the 
mother  country. 


r  27T 1 


XXVI 

WHEN   AMERICANS   WERE    ENGLISH 

*•  The  Americans  are  the  sons — not  the  bastards  of  England  ..." 
**//  is  my  opinion  that  this  kingdom  has  no  right  to  lay  a  tax 

upon  the  colonies.      .      .      ." 

**  I  rejoice  that  America  has  resisted.      .      .      ." 

"  You  cannot  conquer  America.      .      .      ." — Speeches  ^/"Lord 

Chatham  relative  to  the  American  Revolution. 

Settlements  in  Virginia,  Maryland,  New  England — Love  of  Local 
Liberty — English  Tradition 

FROM  the  settlement  of  Virginia,  in  1607,  to 
the  peace  between  England  and  France,  in 
1763,  the  colonial  power  of  England  developed 
almost  uninterruptedly  in  almost  every  portion  of  the 
globe.  By  conquest  she  had  secured  Canada  and 
India,  but  by  the  free  enterprise  of  individual  settlers 
she  had  become  the  mistress  of  other  lands  many  times 
more  valuable  than  all  the  wealth  of  the  Indies,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  Canada  of  that  day.  But  this  great 
power  encouraged,  at  the  Court  of  George  III.,  a  spirit 
dangerous  to  English  liberty — a  spirit  congenial  to  a 
king  essentially  German  in  his  distrust  of  representa- 
tive government;  a  spirit  that  counted  national 
greatness  by  the  number  of  battalions  in  the  field 
rather  than  by  the  happiness  of  his  average  citizen. 
George  III.  was  not  the  man  to  understand  why  Eng- 
[  ^7^  ] 


WHEN   AMERICANS   WERE  ENGLISH 

lish  troops  could  in  a  short  campaign  conquer  India 
and  Canada,  yet  be  baffled  by  colonial  militia  in  Massa- 
chusetts, Barbados,  and  Virginia — he  was  hopelessly 
incapable  of  understanding  the  character  of  the  people 
over  whom,  for  their  punishment,  Providence  had  sent 
him  to  rule.* 

In  the  early  career  of  the  American  colonies  the 
English  settlers  felt  socially,  religiously,  and  politically 
as  Englishmen  in  England.  They  had  no  newspapers 
of  their  own,  no  towns  worth  mentioning,  and  no  po- 
litical interest  that  extended  further  than  defending 
their  settlements  from  Indians  and  securing  good 
prices  for  their  products.  For  the  first  generation  or 
two,  while  the  colonists  were  mainly  English-born,  the 
settlers  of  Barbados  or  Virginia  were  as  keenly  alive 
to  the  "  home  "  questions  of  the  day  as  though  their 
plantations  lay  in  Devonshire  or  Yorkshire.  The 
cavalier  of  England  remained  a  cavalier  in  the  new 
world,  and  the  war  between  the  Stuarts  and  the  Par- 
liamentary party  was  waged  with  but  scant  mitigation 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  When  the  head  of 
Charles  I.  fell  in  the  lap  of  Cromwell,  the  act  was  re- 
sented in  the  new  world  with  varying  degrees  of  spirit. 
In  Barbados  the  g(jvcninient  of  the  Commonwealth 
was  defied  by  an  armed  (icmonstration,  and  the  Vir- 
ginians at  once  proclaimed  Charles  II.  their  king — 
even  going  so  far  as  to  send  a  special  committee  to 
invite   him    from    luirope   that    he    might    found    the 

*  "  I'lir  l.i  raisoii  incmc  ([110  nous  iivoiis  |)ii  juKcr  cclti;  nalidii  (An}j;le- 
tf-rrc)  (!<•  jiliis  prrs,  nous  somrm^s  Ics  picmirrs  A  luliiiiriT  In  ilaiivoyiiiicc, 
riialiilrlr,  la  u'liacilr  (1(;  son  ^^oiivcriifini-nt,  I'csprit  <lViilft|)rise  ct 
>rinilialiv(.-  Iiaidic  <U:  son  |il-u[iIc,  la  soliilaiilL-  dv  scs  I'lls,  (|iii  Ini  loni  nno 
ani(;  nalionalir  cj^alc  A  amunc  autre  ilans  la  liunnc  (•(inunc  ilans  la 
nuiuvuisc  lurlunc." — [C'ojoni-'l  Monlcil,   iSijij,  Kcvuc  llclnJonmdauc.  J 

I   ^7.^   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

"kingdom"  of  Virginia!  His  lot  might  have  been 
more  tolerable  than  that  of  the  Portuguese  incum- 
bents of  the  Brazilian  throne,  but  hardly  such  as  to 
satisfy  his  monarchical  pretensions. 

Judging  by  the  light  of  subsequent  history,  it  is 
fair  to  assume  that  had  this  invitation  been  then  ac- 
cepted, there  would  have  been  two  headless  Stuarts 
instead  of  one. 

As  time  passed,  however,  the  American  colonies 
along  the  Atlantic  coast  realized,  with  sadness  and 
some  anger,  that  they  had  as  little  to  hope  from  one 
dynasty  as  another;  that  the  caprice  of  a  king  is  but 
little  more  harmful  than  the  ignorance  or  indifit'erence 
of  a  parliament,  and  that  in  politics,  as  in  private  life, 
the  absent  are  usually  adjudged  in  the  wrong. 

The  government  of  Cromwell  confirmed  all  the 
chartered  liberties  of  the  colonies;  but  in  1651  was 
passed  a  navigation  act  which  aroused  universal  colo- 
nial resentment,  in  that  it  forbade  the  Americans  from 
trading  in  other  than  English  ships  to  and  from  Eng- 
land. This  measure  was  aimed  especially  at  the  Dutch, 
who  at  that  time  did  the  carr>^ing  trade  more  effi- 
ciently and  at  lower  rates  than  the  mother  country. 
In  Virginia  there  was  much  complaint,  because,  while 
the  cost  of  carriage  increased,  the  price  of  tobacco  de- 
creased. 

This  Navigition  Act  of  Cromwell  was,  however,  so 
mild  an  infringement  of  colonial  interest  compared  with 
what  was  enacted  by  Charles  II.  on  his  accession,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  measures  enacted  by  James  II.,  that 
even  the  most  loyal  of  Virginians  realized  that  their 
commercial  and  political  salvation  lay  no  longer  in 
[  274  ] 


WHEN   AMERICANS   WERE   ENGLISH 

petitions  to  Whitehall,  but  in  their  own  cunning,  if 
not  strength. 

The  first  measure  of  Charles  II.  on  his  accession  (in 
1660)  was  to  forbid  any  alien  from  transacting  busi- 
ness in  the  colonies.  In  1663  no  produce  was  allowed 
to  enter  the  colonies  excepting  in  English  ships.  In 
1672  America  was  forbidden  to  manufacture  any  ar- 
ticle that  might  compete  with  English  industry. 

Here  we  see  the  beginning  of  that  narrowest  of  all 
mercantile  systems  which  regarded  the  colony  simply 
as  an  estate  to  be  exploited  without  reference  to  the 
interests  of  the  colonists  themselves. 

This  system  reproduced  much  that  was  most  objec- 
tionable in  the  Spanish  system,  with  far  less  justifica- 
tion; for  the  American  colonies  had  settled  them- 
selves without  cost  to  the  mother  country  and  asked 
not  even  military  protection. 

With  the  Stuarts  an  end  was  put  to  religious  tolera- 
tion in  Virginia,  and  as  for  New  England,  already  in 
1634,  Archbishop  Laud  took  into  his  own  hands  the 
supervision  of  all  emigrants  for  Massachusetts,  per- 
mitting none  to  go  thither  excepting  such  as  were 
"  orthodox."  * 

But  these  measures  did  not  prevent  the  steady  de- 
velopment of  the  colonies  in  population  and  wealth, 
for  they  were  to  a  large  extent  modified  in  America, 
if  not  completely  ignored.  Contraband  trade  flour- 
ished, and  the  ICnglish  riovcrnnicnt  was  so  much  oc- 

•  I-aud  was  Ijorii  in  1^7.^,  and  (ictapit.itiMl,  by  order  of  tlio  I.<>n^;  I'arliii- 
mcnt,  in  1645,  In  I<<.1,<  lie  was  niailc  An  lil)isli(>|)  of  CanlcrlnMy.  mid  by 
his  r(:a<liiicss  to  siipiiort  llir  royal  measures  in  opposition  to  tliosc  of  llic 
pcopii;  Ik;  (.-ariied  the  (^raliliide  ol  (he  Sliiails  -niucll  US  Uisiuuri-k  in  lS6j 
curucd  the  gratitude  ol  William  I.  of  I'mssiu. 

I    275    J 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  NATIONS 

cupied  with  European  afifairs  that  its  efforts  in  America 
were  never  backed  by  adequate  means  for  their  en- 
forcement. 

As  early  as  1670,  Virginia,  which  sixty  years  before 
had  been  on  the  point  of  being  abandoned  as  worth- 
less, counted  38,000  white  inhabitants  with  2,000  black 
slaves.  The  militia  force  numbered  8,000,  and  was 
called  out  each  month  for  drill,  while  her  frontiers 
were  protected  by  five  forts  mounting  thirty  pieces  of 
artillery. 

In  spite  of  what  had  happened,  the  royalist  senti- 
ment still  survived  until  Charles  II.  alienated  his  last 
supporters  in  Virginia  when  he  handed  over  this  re- 
public, as  he  might  have  done  an  English  farm,  to  a 
couple  of  his  personal  friends.  Such  crass  political 
blundering  as  this  was  required — such  cruel  indif- 
ference to  human  rights,  before  our  loyal  English  an- 
cestors in  America  even  whispered  about  political 
independence ! 

Indeed,  in  those  days  the  torch  of  liberty,  after 
kindling  freedom  on  the  American  seaboard,  had  al- 
most expired  in  the  land  of  its  origin;  and  while  Eng- 
lishmen of  New  England,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland, 
and  Virginia  w'ere  perfecting  parliamentary  govern- 
ment and  broadening  themselves  in  the  practice  of 
political  and  religious  toleration,  the  people  of  Eng- 
land were  apparently  sinking  to  a  lower  social  and 
moral  plane  under  the  influence  of  a  statecraft  mod- 
elled after  the  pattern  of  Versailles. 

Mar}'land,  which  had  been  founded  in  1632  by  Lord 
Baltimore,  enacted  (in  1649)  "  that  no  person  profes- 
sing to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  shall  from  henceforth  be 

[   27(>  ] 


WHEN   AMERICANS   WERE  ENGLISH 

any  ways  troubled  in  respect  of  his  or  her  religion  " — 
an  act  almost  unique  of  its  kind  and  as  startling  to 
Europe,  in  that  century,  as  was  in  1776  the  Declara- 
tion that  all  men  were  politically  equal.  It  was  re- 
served to  Maryland,  founded  by  a  Roman  Catholic, 
to  be  the  first  American  colony,  perhaps  the  first  of 
Christian  States,  in  which  all  Christian  sects  were  not 
merely  tolerated,  but  cordially  welcomed. 

Quakers  fled  thither  from  New  England,  and  al- 
ready in  the  same  year  (1649)  ^  hundred  Puritans  set- 
tled in  Maryland  under  Lord  Baltimore's  protection,  to 
escape  the  High  Church  persecution  of  Virginia. 

Persecution  was  the  order  of  the  day.  Scarcely  any 
liberal-minded  man  was  so  radical  as  to  desire  its  aboli- 
tion— but  there  were  many  who  desired  that  it  should 
be  done  on  a  democratic  basis.  They  stoutly  resented 
the  arbitrary  persecution  of  a  king  or  an  archbishop, 
but  maintained  with  equal  stoutness  the  right  of  the 
people's  representatives  to  pass  measures  of  intoler- 
ance. Thus  the  Puritans  of  New  England,  organized 
on  the  basis  of  universal  suffrage  and  with  officials 
elected  only  for  a  single  year,  enacted  measures  which 
to  a  Quaker,  a  High  Church  man,  to  say  nothing  of 
a  Roman  Catholic,  appeared  monstrous.  But  while 
the  New  England  statute-books  bristled  with  savage 
penalties  for  those  who  transgressed  a  narrow  tlicolog- 
ical  creed,  let  us  not  forget  that  the  Puritan  applied 
this  law  to  himself  and  invited  no  man  to  suffer  with 
him — nor  did  he  go  out  of  his  way  to  inconvenience 
those  who  preferred  oilier  ways  of  salvation.  There 
was  no  Inquisition  in  New  I'Jigland,  IIktc  was  no 
pretension  of  piuiisliing  mere  heresy  that  was  not  linked 
I  V7  I 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  NATIONS 

with  an  overt  act  contrary  to  the  statute-book.  There 
were  isolated  cases  of  hardship  where  fanaticism 
availed  itself  of  a  legal  pretext  for  the  purpose  of  in- 
dulging in  cruelty;  but  these  cases  resembled  those, 
happily  few,  which  marred  the  annals  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth. The  law  was  severe,  but  it  was  rarely  applied, 
excepting  when  obtrusively  challenged  by  such  as 
sought  the  notoriety  of  martyrdom.  It  is  a  favorite 
subject  for  contemporary  humor — the  intolerance  of 
our  Puritan  ancestors  while  professing  liberty  for 
themselves — it  is  a  theme  particularly  congenial  to 
churchmen  with  a  leaning  toward  the  Papacy.  But 
such  jibes  can  have  but  scant  currency  so  long  as  our 
libraries  preserve  authentic  records  of  what  was 
achieved  by  the  men  who  first  settled  New  England. 


[  278] 


XXVII 

WHY   ENGLAND    LOST    HER   AMERICAN 
COLONIES 

"  The  most  ominous  political  sign  in  the  United  States  to-day  is 
the  growth  of  a  sentiment  which  either  doubts  the  existence  of  an 
honest  man  in  public  office  or  looks  on  him  as  a  fool  for  not  seizing 
his  opportunities. " — Hen ry  George,  "  Progress  and  Poverty, ' ' 
p.  483. 

Tyranny  of  English  Colonial  Administration  before  America  Re- 
belled— Contrast  with  Present-Day  Relations 

AT  the  time  of  the  English  Revolution  of  1688, 
when  William  III.  ascended  the  throne,  Eng- 
land's American  colonies  contained  about  200,- 
000  white  men  of  overwhelmingly  Anglo-Saxon  char- 
acter. These  were  being  daily  taught  that  it  mattered 
little  to  them  whether  the  government  at  home  was 
republican  or  monarchical,  Protestant  or  Catholic, 
high-church  or  low-church.  Whig  or  Tory.  The 
Crown  was  perpetually  in  need  of  money  to  meet  the 
cost  of  foreign  wars,  and  public  sentiment  had  not 
been  erlucatcd  to  the  point  of  regarding  the  English- 
man of  Virgiin'a  or  Massachusetts  as  in  all  respects 
the  peer  of  the  Englishman  al  home. 

Tf)vvard  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  eentnry,  the  Eng- 
lish (lovernnient  applied  to  its  colonial  trade  political 
maxims  even  less  liberal  llian  those  wliieli  the  Stuarts 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 


had  countenanced.  In  1696  American  trade  was  lim- 
ited to  ships  built  in  England  or  the  colonies,  owned 
and  manned  by  Englishmen.  The  colonists  were  for- 
bidden to  trade  otherwise  than  with  the  mother  coun- 
try. In  1699,  the  weavers  of  England  secured  an  act 
of  Parliament  which  forbade  the  colonies  shipping 
wool  to  the  mother  country,  or  even  from  one  colony 
to  the  other.  The  export  of  lumber  was  limited.  Trees 
suitable  for  masts  could  not  be  felled  without  royal 
permission.  In  1719  Parliament  forbade  the  Ameri- 
can colonies  to  manufacture  articles  of  iron  excepting 
nails,  staples,  and  the  like.  It  was  frankly  proclaimed 
in  the  Lower  House  that  to  permit  manufacturing  in 
America  was  to  encourage  separation  from  the  mother 
country ;  and  while  it  was  found  practically  impossible 
wholly  to  suppress  iron-works  in  America,  the  manu- 
facture was  checked  as  much  as  possible,  and  a  large 
tax  was  raised  on  the  export  of  manufactured  iron. 

This  must  be  strange  reading  for  many  of  our  poli- 
ticians who  have  persistently  advocated  heavy  taxes 
on  imports  for  the  sake  of  protecting  so-called  ''  infant 
industries." 

Manufacturing  of  all  kinds  was  deliberately  stopped 
in  America,  in  so  far  as  the  Government  could  secure 
respect  for  its  laws.  Fortunately  this  left  plenty  of 
room  for  contraband  operations  and  postponed  the 
day  of  reckoning.  Had  England,  toward  the  end  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  been  able  to  enforce  against 
the  colonies  her  own  acts  of  Parliament  with  the  thor- 
oughness of  modern  Germany  or  even  Russia,  no 
doubt  the  Revolutionary  War  of  1776  would  have 
taken  place  three-quarters  of  a  century  earlier. 
[  280  ] 


WHY   ENGLAND   LOST   HER   COLONIES 

In  1 716  there  were  already  five  printing  presses  and 
three  newspapers  in  Boston,  and  these  openly  defied 
the  attempted  censorship  of  the  mother  country.  The 
history  of  America  proceeds  from  now  on  in  a  con- 
stant repetition  of  efforts  at  encroachment  on  the  part 
of  the  Crown,  evasion  and  defiance  on  the  side  of  the 
colonists.  As  England  under  the  Georges  became 
more  blindly  monarchical,  the  Americans  became  more 
and  more  conscious  of  their  strength,  and  urged  with 
even  more  emphasis  than  before  their  right  to  self- 
government.  The  bad  blood  existing  between  New 
England  and  the  mother  country  was  the  principal 
reason  why  Canada  remained  so  long  in  French  hands, 
for  the  men  of  Massachusetts  could  not  become  enthu- 
siastic in  military  enterprises  which  promised  only  the 
strengthening  of  an  unfriendly  military  power  in  their 
neighborhood. 

As  events  turned  out,  however,  the  session  of 
Canada  to  England  in  1763  relieved  the  thirteen  colo- 
nics at  once  from  large  military  expenses  which  had 
been  hitherto  necessary  in  order  to  resist  French  at- 
tacks. From  1763  on,  the  political  thinkers  in 
America  realized  that  the  field  of  their  operations  was 
no  longer  limited  by  French  military  posts,  which  cut 
off  their  Hinterland  and  held  them  prisoners  between 
the  Alleghanies  and  the  Atlantic.  Henceforth  an 
American  combination  against  England  meant  the 
whole  of  North  America  from  Labrador  to  the  CJuif 
of  Mexico,  and  as  far  west  as  man  then  had  knowl- 
edge of. 

In  that  Seven  Years  War  which  closed  in  I7<)3, 
Americans  had  fought  side  by  side  with  Briti.sh  rcgu- 
[  281  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

lars,  had  seen  British  generals  exhibit  gross  miHtary 
incapacity.  George  Washington  and  the  other  Ameri- 
cans who  in  1775  took  up  arms  against  England,  were 
men  w'ho  had  learned  to  be  soldiers  in  a  school  of 
arnls  that  experience  had  proved  to  be — at  least  on 
American  soil — more  valuable  than  that  which  pro- 
duced the  generals  of  George  III. 

One  cannot  read  the  history  of  England,  in  her  rela- 
tions to  America  during  the  latter  half  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  without  being  on  every  page  reminded 
of  South  Africa  and  the  spread  of  Boer  influence  be- 
tween 1896  and  1900. 

Not  to  follow  out  in  detail  what  I  have  already 
touched  upon  elsewhere,  it  is  sufficient  to  refer  to  the 
almost  universal  ignorance  which  prevailed  in  Eng- 
land regarding  the  Boers  at  the  opening  of  the  South 
African  War  in  1899.  A  general  commanding  Eng- 
lish troops  loudly  proclaimed  in  September  that  he 
would  eat  his  Christmas  dinner  in  Pretoria!  Yet 
Christmas  of  1900  found  the  war  still  going  on ! 

Even  English  historians  now  freely  chronicle  the 
manner  in  which  official  England  in  the  days  of  George 
III.  spoke  of  Americans  as  cowards,  incapable  of  or- 
ganization and  resistance.  There  were  liberal-minded 
men  then  who  courageously  defended  colonial  liberties, 
but  their  voices  were  drowned  in  the  general  howl  of 
the  ignorant  and  the  interested.  American  public  men 
in  those  days  knew  the  mother  country  intimately — 
her  strength  and  her  weakness.  Englishmen,  on  the 
contrary,  knew  of  America  only  so  much  as  the  aver- 
age share-holder  cares  to  learn  about  a  country  in 
which  one  of  his  many  investments  happens  to  be. 
[  282  ] 


WHY   ENGLAND  LOST   HER  COLONIES 

Great  changes  have  taken  place  since  then,  never 
so  signally  emphasized  as  in  the  year  1900,  when  the 
colonies  of  Australia  sent  their  delegates  to  the  mother 
country  to  discuss  ways  and  means  of  closer  political 
intercourse.  They  came  as  honored  guests  of  the  na- 
tion; were  made  the  occasion  of  countless  flattering 
functions,  and  at  the  hands  of  the  Government  were 
treated  not  as  colonial  suppliants,  but  as  ambassadors 
of  sovereign  communities. 

To-day  English  colonies  bare  their  arms  for  fight 
in  the  cause  of  Old  England,  and  even  Americans  have 
produced  a  pendant  to  the  Monroe  Doctrine  in  the  sig- 
nificant aphorism  that  "  blood  is  thicker  than  water." 

In  this  year  English  and  American  sailors  and  sol- 
diers are  fighting  side  by  side  in  China.  In  1898,  Ad- 
miral Dewey  found  that  when  the  war  with  Spain 
broke  out,  the  only  hand  extended  to  wish  him  God 
speed,  when  starting  on  his  desperate  mission  to 
Manila,  was  that  of  the  English  sailor. 

Now  let  us  travel  back  to  the  days  when  in  the 
American  colonies  political  life  produced  public  men 
great  in  their  generation  and  greater  still  when  meas- 
ured by  the  shrunken  standards  of  our  latter-day  Con- 
gressmen. 

When  Benjamin  Franklin  went  to  England  as  an 
Englishman,  demanding  the  rights  of  Englishmen, 
asking  no  strange  favor,  but  appealing  to  the  Govern- 
ment of  his  King  for  justice  according  to  ancient  char- 
ters and  many  generations  of  prescription,  ho  and 
others  on  the  same  errand  of  peace  were  treated  by  the 
court,  the  aristocracy,  nicnihcrs  of  the  ( Io\c'i  luncnt, 
and  the  majority  of  politicians  as  contcniplibk-  agita- 
I  ^«3   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

tors  unfit  for  association  on  terms  of  equality  with  the 
so-called  society  of  the  metropolis. 

England  was  drunk  with  the  glory  of  her  past  wars; 
her  power  had  made  her  Wind;  money  easily  made 
had  corrupted  the  sources  of  legislation;  ignorance 
and  indifference  had  done  the  rest. 

Seven  long  years  did  the  thirteen  colonies  fight  the 
mother  country  to  establish  a  principle  which  has 
proved  a  precious  boon  to  every  British  colony  since 
that  time.  The  War  of  Independence  closed  in  1783, 
but  in  1812  another  three  years'  war  broke  out,  which 
but  proved  once  more  that  even  the  best  British  regu- 
lars are  but  poor  stuf¥  against  men  of  English  breeding 
fighting  for  principle.  It  took  these  ten  years  of  good, 
hard  knocks  to  teach  England  the  lesson  which  to-day 
makes  her  the  colonial  mistress  of  the  world. 

Canada  was  the  first  to  profit  by  the  surrender  of 
Yorktown,  but  each  colony  in  turn  felt  the  effect  of 
this  blow,  and  now,  wherever  the  English  flag  floats 
throughout  the  world,  it  represents  either  a  self-gov- 
erning Anglo-Saxon  community  or  at  least  one  in 
which  the  natives  enjoy  as  much  of  self-government 
as  it  is  safe  to  accord. 


[  284] 


XXVIII 

A     SUCCESSFUL     TROPICAL     REPUBLIC     IN 
THE   WEST   INDIES 

**  This  capacity  for  adequate  organization  has  been  the  key-note 
of  distinction  between  the  Democracy  of  our  race  and  all  the  Democ- 
racies by  which  it  has  been  preceded.^'' — George  Parkin, 
"Imperial  Federation,"  p.  2. 

Barbados — A    Tropical    Republic — Declares  Charles  II.    King — 
Opposes  Cromwell — Economic  Development 

BARBADOS  lies  well  within  the  tropics— a  lit- 
tle pin-prick  on  the  fringe  of  the  Caribbean  Sea. 
Her  area  is  so  small  that  on  the  mainland  it 
would  represent  but  a  big  plantation.  For  compara- 
tive purposes  let  us  say  that  it  is  about  the  size  of 
the  Isle  of  Wight.  One  can  walk  clean  across  it  at  its 
broadest  point  between  luncheon  and  dinner,  and  the 
population  is  so  dense  that  some  of  it  threatens  to  drip 
over  into  the  water.  No  country  of  the  world  has  so 
many  people  to  the  square  inch  as  this  happy  little  isl- 
and— the  healthiest,  the  richest,  the  best  governed — 
a  microsco|)ic  mctroj)olis  of  the  West  Indies.  If  there 
is  any  truth  in  tlif  maxim,  Happy  is  llic  conntrx  that 
has  JU)  history,  no  hctirr  illnslratioii  of  it  can  bo  olTt'iH'd 
than  this  tr()|)ical  outpost  of  Anglo-Saxon  liberty-  the 
most  eastern  or  windward  island  of  llie  Spanish  M.iin. 
According  to  all  orlh«»dox  political  economy,  its  enor- 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

mous  population  of  over  i,ooo  to  the  square  mile 
should  be  unhappy  as  compared  to  the  others  where 
land  is  to  be  had  for  the  asking;  but  Mr.  Malthus  finds 
few  followers  in  Barbados  amidst  a  population  which 
sees  on  all  sides  colonies  prospering  in  proportion  as 
population  increases.  Cause  and  effect  are  here  con- 
fused, as  in  most  political  problems,  but  the  West  Ind- 
ian can  make  as  good  an  argument  as  Mr.  IMalthus  on 
the  subject  of  over-population. 

On  the  occasion  of  my  visit  to  this  interesting  island 
what  struck  me  most  forcibly  was  the  evidence  of  Brit- 
ish tenacity  in  matter  of  social  custom.  In  the  midst 
of  a  broiling  tropical  noontide,  the  social  leaders  of  the 
capital  moved  to  church  clad  in  the  conventional  top- 
hat,  stiff  collar,  black  frock-coat  and  patent  leather 
shoes,  enduring  fifty-two  times  a  year  the  martyrdom 
which  many  of  their  enterprising  ancestors  in  the  age 
of  Elizabeth  compressed  into  a  single  sufficiency  when 
they  fell  foul  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition  at  La  Guayra. 
The  "  Bim,"  as  the  Barbadian  is  affectionately  called 
for  short,  is  an  Englishman  through  and  through,  ex- 
cepting where  he  has  rubbed  off  something  from  the 
Yankee.  The  clean  streets,  comfortable  houses,  soHd 
public  buildings,  effective  sanitary  inspection,  local 
policing — all  these  reflect  an  English  ancestry,  with 
little  admixture. 

The  governor  of  this  little  toy  empire  holds  garden 
parties  and  sits  in  state  quite  as  grandly  as  if  he  pre- 
sided at  Calcutta  or  Singapore.  Tommy  Atkins  swag- 
gers about  the  streets  with  the  same  easy  indifference 
to  latitude  and  longitude  that  he  exhibits  at  Cape 
Town  or  Hong-Kong,  and  the  gorgeous  black  privates 
[  286  ] 


TROPICAL  REPUBLIC  IN  WEST  INDIES 


of  the  West  India  Regiment,  in  their  zouave  outfit, 
show  that  the  Englishman  respects  the  black  man  as 
a  man  if  not  as  a  brother. 

There  is  a  railway  in  Barbados — it  must  have  been 
a  tight  squeeze  to  get  it  in;  and  electric  trams,  and 
one  or  two  huge  American  hotels  on  the  beach,  where 
families  come  from  all  over  the  Spanish  Main  to  recruit 
their  health  at  this  Narragansett  of  the  tropics. 

The  negroes  are  the  biggest  and  strongest  in  the 
West  Indies,  and  they  all  must  work,  for  there  is  no 
waste  Hinterland  where  they  can  get  their  dinner  from 
the  shake  of  a  cocoa-nut  tree.  They  are  English 
through  and  through  in  language,  church,  and  custom, 
though  as  to  apparel  a  few  yards  of  cotton  print  with 
a  string  around  the  middle  seems  enough  for  practical 
purposes. 

When  the  citizen  of  Barbados,  who  represents  three 
centuries  of  English  blood,  Creole  from  the  days  of 
King  James,  reads  in  the  papers  that  Anglo-Saxons 
should  not  acquire  tropical  territory  because  the  white 
man  cannot  thrive  except  in  the  temperate  zone,  he 
smiles  in  pity  and  says:  "  What  fools  of  men  sit  in 
Parliament!    Yet  they  pretend  to  govern  us!  " 

For  Barl)ados  is  a  republic,  in  practice  if  not  in 
theory.  Tropical  republics  arc  scarce — the  only  other 
one  of  which  I  have  personal  knowledge  is  Natal,  on 
the  cast  ccjast  of  vSouth  Africa,  which  is  not  only  one 
of  the  hottest  of  luigland's  colonies,  but  at  the  same 
time  one  of  the  healthiest  and  best  governed  of  any  in 
Africa. 

The  history  lA  I'arbados  runs  back  into  obscm'C 
times,  when  only  Si)ain  was  acknowledged  in  l!ic  West 
I  287  ] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

Indies  and  those  who  invaded  her  territory  did  so  at 
the  risk  of  the  gallows  or  the  Inquisition. 

Officially  Barbados  was  settled  in  1625  under  a  royal 
grant,  by  forty  English  emigrants,  one  of  whom  was 
the  son  of  John  Winthrop,  afterward  Governor  of 
Massachusetts. 

But,  as  in  the  case  of  New  England,  the  official  ac- 
tion of  the  mother  country  w^as  resented  by  the  colo- 
nists, and  did  more  harm  than  good.  It  had  no  doubt 
been  already,  for  many  years  before  the  official  grant, 
frequented  by  Englishmen  who  sought  here  freedom 
from  political  and  religious  interference.  There  w^as 
here  also  a  large  admixture  of  the  freebooting  element 
that  made  Martinique  and  San  Domingo  nurseries  of 
French  liberty  long  after  self-government  had  disap- 
peared in  France.  The  civil  and  religious  dissensions 
in  England  sent  refugees  to  Barbados,  as  they  did  to 
Maryland,  Massachusetts,  and  Virginia,  and  from  the 
very  outset  these  people,  while  mainly  royalist  refu- 
gees, developed  a  characteristically  English  capacity 
for  taking  care  of  themselves. 

Already  in  1636  there  were  6,000  Englishmen  in 
the  island,  and  successive  governors  complained  that 
these  were  animated  by  a  determined  disposition  to 
have  their  own  w^ay.  The  island  prospered  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  it  w-as  given  away  by  the  English  Crown 
to  court  favorites  and  treated  as  a  plantation  to  be  ex- 
ploited. Fortunately  there  were  rival  claimants,  and 
these  exhausted  themselves  while  the  colony  itself 
practically  conducted  its  own  affairs. 

An  idea  of  this  little  island's  strength  and  public 
spirit  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  when  Charles 
[  288  ] 


TROPICAL   REPUBLIC   IN  WEST   INDIES 

I.  lost  his  head,  it  was  the  only  colony  whose  resistance 
to  the  Commonwealth  caused  Cromwell  any  great 
trouble.  Charles  II.  was  proclaimed  king  by  the  loyal 
*'  Bims,"  the  militia  was  called  out,  and  not  till  1652 
was  the  great  Protector  able  to  assert  his  authority 
in  Barbados.  The  adjustment  was  characteristic  of 
Anglo-Saxons.  Each  party  was  drawn  up  ready  to 
fight,  but  when  the  British  "  Bims  "  were  convinced 
that  the  struggle  was  hopeless  and  that  in  capitulating 
they  would  receive  honorable  terms,  they  disbanded 
their  forces  and  turned  once  more  to  their  daily  rou- 
tine. 

Barbados  has  never  permitted  a  foreign  enemy  on 
its  soil.  When  Pere  Labat  visited  there  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  eighteenth  century,  he  studied  particularly 
the  military  condition  of  the  island  with  a  view  to 
French  invasion.  He  was  himself  a  skilful  engineer 
and  had  constructed  some  forts  in  the  French  islands. 
He  describes  Barbados  as  a  magnificent  island  to 
plunder,  admired  the  wealth  of  the  planters,  and,  above 
all,  the  large  proportion  of  white  men  trained  to  mili- 
tary service.  He  found  forts  and  batteries  at  many 
points  on  the  shores,  and  congratulated  himself  upon 
having  succeeded  in  stealing  a  map  of  the  place  from 
his  host.  This  Dominican  priest,  whose  book  on  the 
West  Indies  remains  to-day  delightful  reading,  was  an 
essentially  ()ractical  man,  and  returned  from  Barbados 
with  no  desire  to  venture  an  at  trick  upon  that  place. 

When  Cromwell  attackcil  Jamaica  in  if)55,  ho  se- 
cured 3.500  vdhnitcers  from  I'arbados  .alone,  .and,  be- 
tween U^AT,  and  \(^S7<  ''  ^^''^  estimated  th.at  at  least 
12,000  white  men  U-ft  the  isl.aiul  to  settle  .and  develop 
1   2H<)    I 


THE  CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

other  parts  of  the  West  Indies,  or  the  North  American 
colonies. 

Just  one  hundred  years  before  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  at  Philadelphia,  Barbados  had  50,000 
whites  and  100,000  negro  slaves. 

It  is  late  in  the  day  to  discuss  negro  slavery,  but, 
throughout  the  British  West  Indies  as  well  as  Virginia, 
it  is  worth  noting  that  the  legalizing  of  the  slave-trade 
was  followed  by  a  gradual  diminution  of  the  white 
population  and  a  disproportion  between  the  numbers 
of  white  and  black  to  a  degree  which  in  several  cases, 
as  in  Jamaica,  endangered  the  existence  of  the  white 
settlers  and  made  representative  government  more  dif- 
ficult, if  not  impossible. 

After  slavery  had  taken  deep  root,  and  when  plan- 
tations had  come  to  resemble  manufactories  devoted 
to  a  single  crop;  when  white  labor  had  wholly  dis- 
appeared in  consequence  of  slave  competition,  then 
many  people  agreed  that  slave  labor  was  absolutely 
essential  to  successful  tropical  agriculture,  and  that 
black  emancipation  meant  colonial  ruin.  There  was 
much  plausibility  in  this,  in  the  early  years  of  this 
century,  when  the  abolition  of  slavery  was  agitated  in 
England,  but  it  was  negro  slavery  itself  that  created 
the  very  plantation  system  which  was  only  profitable 
when  worked  on  a  large  scale  by  negro  gangs. 

Sugar — that  crop  which  has  since  monopolized  the 
interest  of  the  West  Indies  and  been  the  prime  justi- 
fication of  slavery  for  two  centuries  and  more,  was  only 
introduced  into  the  island  in  1640.  In  1643  there  were 
18,600  able-bodied  white  men  in  Barbados,  of  whom 
8,300  were  proprietors,  and  only  6,400  negroes.  The 
[  290  ] 


TROPICAL  REPUBLIC   IN  WEST   INDIES 

mere  mention  of  this  number  allows  us  to  draw  the 
inference  that  white  labor  was  successfully  employed 
here  as  it  was  in  the  early  days  of  Martinique  and  Vir- 
ginia— and  would  have  continued  to  make  the  colonies^ 
prosper  but  for  the  greed  of  gold  which  permitted 
Christian  nations  to  enslave  Africans,  and  then  sell 
them  as  human  machines — I  will  not  say  as  beasts  of 
burden. 

In  our  day  we  have  laws  protecting  animals  against 
ill  usage  at  the  hands  of  their  masters — in  those  days, 
the  black  man  on  a  Jamaica  plantation  had  less  protec- 
tion from  the  common  law  than  has  to-day  the  cab 
horse  of  London !  Black  labor  has  so  thoroughly  dis- 
possessed that  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  in  the  cotton,  to- 
bacco, and  sugar-growing  sections  of  America,  that 
we  are  apt  to  think  this  state  of  things  natural  and 
unalterable.  But  from  the  experience  of  our  English 
ancestors  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  if,  by  some  happy 
magic,  the  negro  should  suddenly  return  to  his  native 
Africa,  the  white  man  would  develop  his  tropical 
American  territories  more  satisfactorily. 

In  the  olden  days  colonization  was  much  assisted  by 
a  system  which  permitted  a  man  who  had  got  into  the 
clutch  of  the  law,  through  debt  or  other  misfortune, 
to  buy  his  release  through  personal  service — such  a 
man  worked  after  the  fashion  of  one  who,  nowadays, 
labors  to  pay  back  the  money  that  has  been  advanced 
for  his  passage  from  the  old  world  to  New  York.  The 
law  forbids  it,  but  human  nature  linds  means  of  evad- 
ing such  legislation. 

Under  that  old  syslcin  llionsands  of  slout  while  men 
came  to  llie  new  world  wilh  (heir  families,  ami  alter 

r  .•.„  I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

serving  a  term  of  years,  were  pronounced  once  more 
restored  to  their  civil  rights  and  given  land  to  culti- 
vate. This  system,  like  every  other,  was  open  to 
abuse;  but  under  proper  inspection  was  eminently  use- 
ful to  all  concerned — the  mother  country,  the  colony, 
and,  chief  of  all,  the  white  emigrant  himself. 

The  home  government  simply  handed  the  man  over 
to  an  agent  for  the  colonies,  and  was  thus,  by  a  stroke 
of  the  pen,  relieved  of  all  further  responsibility. 

But  this  system  received  a  check  in  1776,  when  the 
American  War  broke  out,  and  the  thirteen  colonies, 
one  and  all,  forbade  the  sending  of  any  more  indented 
or  apprenticed  whites  to  their  shores.  This  action  of 
America  gave  a  still  stronger  impulse  to  the  African 
slave-trade  by  increasing  the  demand  for  plantation 
hands — a  consequence  little  dreamed  of  by  our  Puritan 
liberators. 

One  consequence  of  the  negro  in  America  is  that 
he  has  retarded  the  use  of  labor-saving  machinery,  or 
of  any  machinery  requiring  intelligent  handling.  The 
smaller  the  price  of  labor,  the  less  importance  is  at- 
tached to  machinery.  It  is  not  in  Russia,  but  in  Min- 
nesota, that  agriculture  develops  labor-saving  imple- 
ments— it  is  among  highly  educated  people  only  that 
highly  ef^cient  machinery  is  profitable.  People  who 
are  well  paid  with  ten  cents  a  day  cannot  rise  to  an 
appreciation  of  a  modern  reaping-machine — or  even 
an  American  plough.  A  Chinaman  of  the  interior  can- 
not understand  why  a  Massachusetts  machinist  can 
earn  $5  a  day  and  turn  from  his  machine  cotton  stuff 
which  under-sells  stuff  made  in  Canton  by  girls  earn- 
ing five  cents  a  day. 

[  292  ] 


TROPICAL  REPUBLIC   IN  WEST    INDIES 

Although  the  Great  Wall  of  China  was  built  by 
forced  labor,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  to-day  an 
American  contractor  would  undertake  to  build  it  over 
again  with  free  labor  for  less  money  than  it  originally 
cost.  The  reason  for  this  is,  that  only  high-priced 
mechanics  can  be  trusted  with  high-priced  machinery 
— and  a  good  machine  can  underbid  the  best  of 
slaves. 

The  white  man  has  never  yet  shown  great  taste  for 
long  and  arduous  labor  in  the  tropics — such  as  hoe- 
ing a  field  of  cotton,  for  instance.  We  have  never 
known  it  done,  for  the  mere  reason  that  the  white  man 
is  more  valuable  as  a  superintendent  of  black  labor 
than  as  a  single  hand  in  the  furrow. 

White  sailors  do  their  work  in  the  tropics  as  they  do 
in  the  north;  and  soldiers  fight  as  well  in  India  as  in 
Northern  China.  If  we  hear  of  excessive  mortality  in 
hot  climates  among  v^^iite  troops,  we  can  generally 
trace  it  to  bad  habits  of  living,  to  inexperience  on  the 
part  of  the  officers,  to  the  unsanitary  state  of  the  coun- 
try— not  merely  to  the  heat.  America  is  essentially 
the  land  of  labor-saving  machinery,  for  the  reason  that 
in  the  northern  part,  at  least,  labor  has  been  intelligent 
and  consequently  expensive.  In  England,  where,  on 
the  contrary,  domestic  service  has  been  comparatively 
cheap  and  unintelligent,  the  American  is  struck  by 
the  absence  of  labor-saving  contrivances.  The  conse- 
quence is  that  an  English  house  requires  about  one- 
third  more  servants  than  a  corresponding  om-  in 
America.  Such  common  things  as  speaking  tubes, 
dumb  waiters,  electric  lights,  gas  stoves,  hot  and  cold 
water  on  tap  in  every  room,  balh-tubs  properly  litlcd 
[  293  ] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 


up — all  these  came  to  England  long  after  they  had  be- 
come commonplace  in  America.  I  can  recall  many 
mansions  in  England  where  none  of  these  things  are 
yet  known — where  guests  dress  for  dinner  by  the  light 
of  two  dim  candles;  where  a  little  tin  bath-tub  is 
brought  into  one's  room  along  with  two  jugs  of  water; 
where  on  cold  evenings  the  ladies  huddle  about  the 
open  fire  with  shawls,  because  the  machinery  for  heat- 
ing would  be  too  complicated  for  the  forces  obtainable 
in  the  neighborhood. 

It  is  fair  to  say  that  many  a  wealthy  English 
nobleman  has  fewer  comforts  in  his  palace  than  the 
average  New  England  professor,  whose  income  rep- 
resents but  a  tithe  of  that  enjoyed  by  his  Old  World 
kinsman. 

All  industry  in  the  West  Indies  is  at  a  low  ebb  be- 
cause sugar  fetches  but  little  on  the  market,  and  the 
planters  have  depended  too  much  on  that  one  crop. 
They  have  had  their  day  of  abundance,  and  the  pres- 
ent generation  is  paying  the  penalty.  In  the  good  old 
days  of  slavery  there  was  no  need  of  intelligence  in 
the  running  of  a  plantation.  The  price  of  sugar  was 
such  that  any  machinery  was  good  enough,  and  plant- 
ers could  lounge  in  London  while  overseers  looked 
to  the  estates  and  remitted  fat  dividends  at  regular 
intervals. 

But  times  changed,  and  the  emancipation  of  slaves 
(1834)  diminished  profits.  Then  the  planters  bor- 
rowed money  and  hoped  for  better  times.  But  the 
times  did  not  improve,  so  they  mortgaged  their  es- 
tates and  kept  on  expecting  better  things  that  never 
arrived. 

I  294  ] 


TROPICAL  REPUBLIC    IN  WEST   INDIES 

Finally,  they  had  spent  all  their  capital,  had  no 
money  with  which  to  buy  improved  machinery,  had 
lost  the  energy  that  characterized  their  ancestors,  and 
got  more  and  more  involved  in  financial  embarass- 
ment,  until  once  wealthy  plantations  were  abandoned 
to  wild  beasts — as  any  traveller  can  testify. 

Parliament  has  been  much  importuned  to  give 
pecuniary  relief,  and  latterly  has  done  so — but  all  such 
measures  are  unwise.  It  is  not  the  business  of  govern- 
ment to  take  money  out  of  the  pockets  of  the  thrifty 
and  give  it  to  the  unsuccessful.  If  the  West  Indies 
are  depressed  at  present  it  is  largely  because  they  have 
latterly  been  looking  to  the  Government  for  relief,  in- 
stead of  depending  entirely  upon  themselves.  When 
Government  has  removed  all  hampering  restrictions 
to  the  colonial  development  of  the  islands,  it  has  done 
enough — and  if  after  that  the  colonists  cannot  earn 
a  living,  then  they  had  better  abandon  sugar  and  grow 
something  that  pays  better. 

The  West  Indies  need  no  pauper  legislation — they 
need  but  the  wholesome  tonic  of  healthy  competition 
to  revive  prosperity.  Men  who  own  land  should  be 
compelled  to  work  it  themselves — not  leave  it  to 
agents.  Government  should  be  simplified  to  the  great- 
est possible  extent,  in  order  to  introduce  more  econ- 
omy of  administration.  The  incompetent  planters 
should  be  allowed  to  go  into  bankruptcy  and  drop 
away  as  soon  as  possible,  and  leave  room  for  a  new 
generation  of  more  enterprising  and  bettor  ecim'ppi'il 
husbandmen. 

If  Ciovcrnnicnt  wislies  to  iiili-rfrre  willionl  doing 
much  harm,  let  it  limit  itself  to  the  building  of  good 
f  29.S  I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

roads,  and  the  fostering  of  communication  between 
the  islands;  the  establishing  of  cheaper  telegraph 
rates;  of  savings  banks;  the  simplification  of  land 
transfer;  the  encouragement  of  peasant  proprietors 
among  the  blacks;  the  abolition  of  land  speculation. 


[  296  1 


XXIX 

FROM    MY    DIARY    IN    BRITISH    GUIANA 

*•  The  momentum  of  past  events,  the  spontaneous  impulses  of  the 
mass  of  a  tiation  .  .  .  all  have  more  to  do  with  the  progress 
of  human  affairs  than  the  deliberate  views  of  even  the  most  deter- 
mined and  far-sighted  of  our  individual  leaders,''*  — John 
MoRLEY,  "Cromwell." 

January  2^,  i8po.    In  the  Court  Room  at  Gcorgctoivn, 
Demcrara. 

ON  a  high  platform  sat  the  judge,  William  An- 
thony Musgrave  Sherriff,  by  name,  in  gorgeous 
crimson  robe  but  without  wig.  Immediately 
to  his  left  was  the  witness-stand,  and  immediately  in 
front  of  his  desk,  but  below  it,  sat  the  Clerk  of  the 
Court,  a  handsome  and  intelligent-looking  mulatto, 
who  had  passed  his  legal  examination  at  the  British 
Guiana  bar,  and  is  at  present  writing  a  book  upon  the 
law  and  practice  in  this  colony.  This  interesting  clerk, 
M.  E.  Q.  V.  Abraham,  speaks  highly  of  the  Dutch  law 
in  vogue  here,  as  being  vastly  simpler  and  more  ra- 
tional than  what  is  practised  in  London. 

Close  to  the  clerk's  desk,  on  the  right,  is  the  tabic 
where  the  Crown  officers  sit  in  lluir  gowns  of  black, 
but  minus  wigs.  I'chind  these,  on  (he  right  of  the 
room,  arc  tables  for  reporters.  On  the  left  of  the 
Judge  are  the  twelve  jurors,  as  with  us,  and  immcdi- 
[  207  1 


'     THE  CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

ately  in  front,  behind  a  central  table  at  which  counsel 
sit,  is  the  prisoner's  dock,  behind  which  again  are 
seats  for  about  fifty  spectators. 

The  first  case  was  against  two  blacks,  who  stood  in 
the  dock  charged  w'ith  having  assaulted  a  merchant 
on  the  street  and  knocked  a  walking-stick  out  of  his 
hand,  with  the  obvious  intention  of  doing  him  bodily 
harm.  The  case  was  clear  against  one  of  them,  a  man 
who  had  been  already  four  times  convicted  of  felony. 
The  Judge  gave  him  the  fullest  opportunity  of  offering 
evidence  in  his  behalf,  of  questioning  witnesses,  and 
of  addressing  the  Court  and  Jury.  This  prisoner  was 
condemned  to  seven  years'  hard  labor  and  three  years' 
subsequent  police  supervision,  and  left  the  room  curs- 
ing the  Judge  and  growling  general  malediction.  The 
other  prisoner  made  a  harangue  to  judge,  jury,  and 
spectators,  his  eyes  bursting  with  tears,  his  voice 
choked  with  emotion,  his  arms  and  hands  waving  with 
a  grace  that  indicated  the  triumph  of  nature  over  art. 
He  reviewed  his  past  life,  referred  to  his  respectable 
family  and  seven  children,  his  professional  duty  as 
market  scavenger,  which,  he  insisted,  raised  him 
above  suspicion.  But  the  most  grievous  weight  upon 
his  spirit  appeared  to  be,  not  that  he  was  in  court  on 
a  charge  of  larceny  or  even  murder,  but  that  he  should 
be  suspected  of  affiliating  with  such  a  "  low  "  black  as 
the  other  prisoner.  "  My  dear  good  father  " — "  My 
dear  good  massa  judge,"  were  expressions  that  he 
used  in  appealing  to  "  His  Honor,"  while  the  jury  were 
referred  to  as  a  group  of  "  My  dear  good  brothers." 
His  speech  flowed  as  freely  as  could  have  been  desired 
by  the  most  ambitious  of  stump  speakers,  and  his  ar- 
[  298  ] 


FROM  MY  DIARY   IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

gumcnts,  even  if  they  lacked  coherency,  appeared  to 
fuse  together  with  enough  force  to  carry  conviction 
to  many  of  his  fellow  blacks.  The  jury  did  not  leave 
their  seat  in  order  to  pronounce  this  one  "  not  guilty  " 
and  convict  the  other — though  my  feelings  were 
mixed  when  the  judge  told  me  later  that  this  same 
man  whom  I  had  seen  acquitted  had  already  served 
three  terms  in  jail  on  similar  charges. 

The  trial  left  nothing  to  be  desired  on  the  score  of 
dignity,  decency,  and  fairness.  The  jury  listened  at- 
tentively and  the  servants  of  the  court  did  their  work 
quietly  and  efficiently.  The  room  was  scrupulously 
clean,  the  attendants  well  dressed  and  tidy. 

The  absence  of  counsel  for  the  defence  would  ap- 
pear from  our  standpoint  to  be  unfair  to  the  prisoner, 
but  as  the  trial  is  conducted  here,  it  seemed  to  me 
rather  the  reverse.  The  judge  does  not  merely  sit  as 
a  dummy  to  give  a  verdict  after  opposing  lawyers 
have  wearied  the  court  with  wrangling.  He  is  here 
to  see  fair  play.  Knowing  that  the  prisoner  looks  to 
the  judge  for  fairness,  and  not  to  a  lawyer,  the  bench 
assists  in  bringing  out  any  testimony  that  may  re- 
dound to  his  credit.  The  Crown  prosecutor,  in  his  turn, 
docs  not  seek  so  much  the  winning  of  his  case  as  the 
establishment  of  the  truth.  The  spirit  in  which  the 
trial  was  conducted  by  judge  and  prosecuting  attorney 
appeared  to  be  that  of  fairness  above  all,  remember- 
ing that  ninety-nine  guiUy  men  had  better  escape 
rather  than  one  innocent  man  suffer. 

January  26. — T.ast  nighl  .il  dinm  r.  llu'  hostess  (Kng- 
lisli  in  birlh  and  bix-fdini;)  Inld  me  thai  hi.'r  Iu';dlli  was 
I   -W  I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

much  the  better  for  living  here.  This  same  high  praise 
for  the  Guiana  climate  I  had  also  from  the  wife  of  the 
Comptroller  of  Customs,  Mrs.  Darnley  Davis,  who  told 
me  she  had  lived  here  five  years,  had  never  known  the 
need  of  medicine,  and  only  once  in  the  life  of  her  three- 
year-old  daughter  had  a  doctor  been  called  in. 

The  dinner  might  have  been  in  New  York  or  Lon- 
don for  aught  that  might  be  called  "  tropical  "  about 
it.  The  black  men-servants,  to  be  sure,  were  in  white 
duck — a  very  sensible  arrangement — but  their  educa- 
tion was  distinctly  metropolitan.  After  dinner,  on 
passing  into  the  drawing-room,  we  found  the  floor 
cleared  for  a  dance  and  about  fifty  guests  assembled, 
including  the  three  white  English  officers  of  the  gar- 
rison and  two  mulatto  ladies — which  latter  received 
apparently  as  much  attention  as  the  majority  of  charm- 
ing English  and  white  creole  girls  at  the  dance.  The 
two  ladies  of  color  were  fashionably  dressed,  and  quite 
at  their  ease.  I  was  told  that  colored  people  went 
into  society  here,  and  that  one  of  the  mulattos  at  this 
party  was  engaged  to  a  white  merchant  of  the  place. 
Her  presence  at  the  ball  was  not  resented,  as  it  would 
have  been  in  other  parts  of  the  West  Indies,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  United  States. 

Henry  Bolingbroke,  writing  in  1807  of  George- 
town (then  called  Starbrock),  says:  "Few  weeks  pass 
without  a  ball  or  a  concert,  the  attending  of  which  is, 
however,  very  expensive.  A  ball  and  supper  cost  to 
each  of  the  gentlemen  subscribers  $8,  a  concert  and 
ball  $12.    His  ticket  also  iivtroduces  tzvo  ladles  of  color." 

"  When  an  European  arrives  in  the  West  Indies 
and  gets  settled  ...  he  finds  it  necessary  to  pro- 
[  300  ] 


FROM  MY  DIARY  IN  BRITISH  GUIANA 

vide  himself  with  a  housekeeper  or  mistress.  The 
choice  he  has  an  opportunity  of  making  is  various,  a 
black,  a  tawny,  a  mulatto,  or  a  mestee;  one  of  which 
can  be  purchased  for  £ioo  or  £150  sterling,  fully  com- 
petent to  fulfil  all  the  duties  of  her  station    .    .    ." 

This  arrangement  is  not  unknown  to-day,  but  it 
will  disappear  when  white  wives  shall  have  made  their 
influence  felt. 

The  son  of  a  British  bishop,  particularly  when  in 
company  with  his  father,  may  be  deemed  competent 
authority  when  quoted  in  regard  to  the  pleasures  of 
the  dance.  Henry  Nelson  Coleridge  (in  1825)  wrote: 
"  A  ball  to  our  creole  girl  is  more  than  a  ball;  it  is  an 
awakener  from  insensibility,  a  summoner  to  society, 
an  inspirer  of  motion  and  thought.  Accordingly  there 
is  more  artlessness,  more  passion  than  is  usual  with  us 
in  England.  The  soft  dark  eyes  of  a  Creole  girl  seem 
to  speak  such  devotion  and  earnestness  of  spirit  that 
you  cannot  choose  but  make  your  partner  your  sweet- 
heart of  an  hour;  there  is  an  attachment  between  you 
which  is  delightful,  and  you  cannot  resign  it  without 
regret." 

"  She  is  pale,  it  is  true,  but  there  is  a  beauty  in  this 
very  paleness,  and  her  full  yet  delicate  shape  is  at  once 
the  shrine  and  censer  of  love,  whence  breathe — 

"  *  The  mcllinj,'  tliouj^Iit, 
The  Kiss  Ambrosial,  and  the  yielding  smile.'  " 
Etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

Anthony   Trollope    has    referred    to    nemernra    ns 
"  The  iLlysiuni  of  the  Tropics — llie  West  Indian  liap|)y 
I   .^01    1 


THE  CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

valley  of  Rasselas — the  one  true  and  actual  Utopia  of 
the  Caribbean  Seas — the  Transatlantic  Eden." 

This  master  of  fiction  continues: 

"  The  men  of  Demerara  are  never  angry  and  the 
women  never  cross,  and  life  flows  on  in  a  perpetual 
stream  of  love,  smiles,  champagne,  and  small  talk.  Ev- 
erybody has  enough  of  everything.  The  only  persons 
who  do  not  thrive  are  the  doctors " 

In  the  midst  of  such  gorgeous  verbiage  from  slow- 
blooded  Britons,  is  it  for  me  to  raise  questions? 


[  302  ] 


XXX 

THE   WEST    INDIES   TO-DAY    AND   TO- 
MORROW 

"These  beautiful  West  Indian  Islands  were  intended  to  be  homes 
for  the  overflowing  numbers  of  our  own  race,  and  the  few  that  have 
gone  there  are  being  crowded  out  by  the  blacks  from  Jamaica  and 
the  Antilles. — Froude,  "The  English  in  the  West  Indies," 
1898. 

Negro,  Chinese,  East  Indians,  and  Whites — Duty  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  Toward  West  Indies — Good  Government  Needed 

NOW  that  English-speaking  peoples  control 
the  momentary  destinies  of  the  principal  isl- 
ands of  the  West  Indies,  when  a  canal  join- 
ing Atlantic  and  Pacific  is  about  to  be  constructed 
under  an  Anglo-Saxon  protectorate,  when,  therefore, 
we  are  justified  in  anticipating  an  increased  European 
interest  in  this  part  of  the  world,  it  is  time  for  us  to 
treat  the  West  Indies  not  as  isolated  appendices  of  far- 
away colonial  offkcs,  but  as  a  community  of  common 
commercial  interests,  of  almost  one  language,  and  to 
some  extent  fitted  for  self-government.  With  Cuba 
and  Porto  Kico  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  Ilayti  in- 
dependent, and  Jamaica  P)ritish,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
large  number  of  small  islands  cither  belonging  to  Eng- 
land or  speaking  luiglish,  there  remain  but  Martinique 
and  (juadcloupc  to  rcprcsfiit  dccp-rootcd  political  at- 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

tachment  to  other  than  Anglo-Saxon  institutions.  It 
is  true  that  Sweden,  Holland,  and  Denmark  are  still 
represented  in  the  West  Indies,  but  to  an  extent  that 
may  be  ignored. 

Hitherto,  and  up  to  the  moment  of  negro  emanci- 
pation (1834),  the  West  India  islands  were  most 
precious  objects  in  the  eyes  of  European  cabinets,  ow- 
ing to  the  high  price  of  sugar.  The  abominable  trade 
in  slaves  enabled  planters  to  make  their  fortunes  and 
enrich  the  mother  country  besides — to  say  nothing 
of  lulling  to  sleep  the  popular  conscience  regarding 
treatment  of  negroes.  So  full  is  West  Indian  history 
of  crime  and  bloodshed  among  its  islands,  that  one 
cannot  fail  to  sympathize  with  Benjamin  Franklin,  who 
could  not  look  upon  a  lump  of  sugar  without  fancying 
it  to  be  stained  with  human  blood. 

Since  negro  emancipation,  the  nations  of  Europe 
have  gone  almost  to  the  opposite  extreme  of  indiffer- 
ence toward  these  islands;  showing  conclusively  that 
such  interest  as  existed  was  rather  on  pecuniary  than 
sentimental  grounds. 

To-day  West  Indian  matters  are  apt  to  be  dismissed 
from  public  consideration  on  the  ground  that  the 
white  man  cannot  live  there;  that  the  black  man  alone 
is  to  be  the  inheritor  in  this  part  of  the  world;  that 
we  don't  want  any  more  negro  States;  and,  that,  in 
short,  they  are  not  worth  having  at  any  price. 

If  this  view  were  correct,  there  would  be  an  end  of 
the  matter,  at  least  for  Americans.  But  it  is  one  based 
on  a  mixture  of  true  and  false  that  must  be  separated 
before  we  can  draw  just  conclusions.  The  West  Indies 
to-day  have,  in  fact,  identical  interests,  but  by  the 
[  304  ] 


WEST  INDIES  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

artificial  action  of  jealous  governments  whose  policy 
had  reference  only  to  the  revenues  of  the  home  coun- 
tries, the  different  islands  have  been  kept  isolated  one 
from  tha  other,  in  a  manner  prejudicial  to  their  de- 
velopment. Thus,  the  different  mother  countries, 
England,  France,  Spain,  etc.,  paid  heavy  subsidies  to 
steamers  plying  from  France  to  Martinique,  South- 
ampton to  Barbados,  Spain  to  Havana,  etc.  The 
cost  of  this  service  was  in  many  instances  a  heavy  tax 
upon  the  islands  themselves.  The  passengers  were 
very  largely  government  officials,  and  the  laws  were 
so  framed  that  the  islanders  were  compelled  to  ship  at 
high  rates  to  Europe  rather  than  to  better  markets 
nearer  at  hand.  The  West  Indies  for  centuries  fur- 
nished the  strange  picture  of  a  country  where  it  was 
easier  to  get  passage  to  Europe  4,000  miles  away,  than 
to  the  islands  of  the  neighborhood.  Even  to-day  this 
system  of  European  subsidy  continues,  while  from  one 
island  to  the  other  the  means  of  intercourse  are  very 
unsatisfactory.  This  is  a  relic  of  that  suspicious  colo- 
nial legislation  which  forbade  colonies  trading  one 
with  another  for  fear  of  ultimately  organizing  against 
the  mother  country.  England  applied  this  colonial 
doctrine  to  her  own  colonics  in  America  and  the  West 
Indies  for  many  years,  and  it  was  a  cardinal  principle 
in  Spain  and  France  as  well.  To-day,  therefore,  the 
islands  of  the  West  Indies,  which  should  regard  them- 
selves as  a  Caribbean  confederation,  with  Jamaica  as 
the  natural  centre  or  capital,  are  virtually  strangers  to 
one  another;  do  ncjt  co-operate  for  common  purposes, 
but  seek  lielj)  from  a  far-riw.iy  mother  country. 

This  relation  is  not  ii.itur.il.    Trade  docs  not  follow 
I  305  J 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

the  flag  in  the  West  Indies.  The  merchant  in  those 
islands  finds  his  best  trade  with  the  great  repubhc  at 
his  door,  rather  than  with  the  Europe  whose  flag  floats 
over  Government  House.  The  relation  of  the  West 
Indies  to  Europe  has  been  an  unnatural  one  since  the 
beginning  of  this  century,  and  has  been  maintained 
largely  through  national  vanity,  irrespective  of  com- 
mercial interests.  The  West  Indies  are  a  part  of  the 
American  Continent  in  every  essential  characteristic, 
and  no  European  subsidies  or  military  demonstration 
can  wholly  prevent  the  persistent  daily  political  and 
commercial  drift  toward  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi 
and  the  Hudson. 

The  expulsion  of  Spain  from  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico 
is  an  important  step  toward  the  ultimate  emancipation 
of  all  the  Caribbean  islands  from  European  control, 
and  their  final  federation,  not  necessarily  as  a  part  of 
the  United  States,  but  as  an  American  political  body 
under  an  Anglo-Saxon  Protectorate,  and  with  Home 
Rule  to  such  as  are  fit  for  it. 

Is  this  Utopian?  Can  self-government  flourish  in 
the  tropics — where  negroes  largely  outnumber  the 
whites,  and  where  the  best  sample  of  negro-govern- 
ment is  in  Hayti,  an  island  whose  administration  sug- 
gests the  ethics  of  a  monkey-cage  rather  than  of  God's 
reasoning  creatures? 

The  present  is,  indeed,  full  of  discouraging  symp- 
toms, but  these  symptoms  will  become  less  dangerous 
in  time  if  we  do  our  duty  toward  the  inferior  races. 
The  negro  controls  the  West  Indies  numerically,  be- 
cause he  has  been  transported  thither  against  his  will. 
He  is  to-day  no  better  than  he  ever  has  been  so  far 
[  306  ] 


WEST  INDIES  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

as  intellectual  or  moral  capacity  is  concerned;  he 
shows  no  dangerous  tendency  toward  dominion  over 
those  who  are  in  the  minority;  on  the  contrary,  he  is,  in 
the  West  Indies  as  in  Basutoland,  essentially  an  over- 
grown child,  ready  to  obey  the  law  of  the  white  man. 

Nor  is  he  the  only  possible  dominant  factor  as  a 
laboring  man.  We  have  found  him  good  in  slavery 
because  of  the  very  qualities  that  make  him  bad  as  a 
free  citizen.*  His  very  docility  and  incapacity  for 
combination  kept  him  a  slave  for  two  centuries  or 
more;  and  his  freedom  proceeded  not  from  his  own 
efforts,  but  exclusively  from  a  morbid  public  senti- 
ment developed  by  London  and  Boston  philanthro- 
pists. We  have  habitually  regarded  the  negro  as  the 
only  working  man  of  the  West  Indies  and  our  Gulf 
States,  merely  because  no  other  competitors  appeared 
to  be  in  the  field.  But  this  condition  is  changing,  and 
the  change  is  bringing  about  the  gradual  effacement  of 
the  black  man,  just  as  Italian  and  Scandinavian  immi- 
gration has  minimized  the  importance  of  the  Irishman 
as  a  labor  factor  in  New  York. 

On  the  occasion  of  a  visit  to  Natal,  in  1896,  I  found 
that  already  plantation  work  was  practically  monopo- 
lized, not  by  the  native  African  whose  kraals  are  on 
all  sides,  but  by  the  imported  coolie  from  Bombay, 

*"  The  industrial  opportunities  for  colored  people  have  been  lessen- 
ing all  the  lime  (in  New  York),  rind  now  the  sphere  of  their  activities 
has  become  so  narrow  that  il  is  a  wonder  that  even  35,000  of  them  can 
earn  honest  livinjjs, 

"  And  (hry  do  not.  Tiic  proportion  of  criminals  amonp  the  ne^jrocs 
in  New  York  is  alarininj^ly  large,  and  their  influence  is  very  dangerous. 
The  birth-rate  among  (lie  negroes  in  New  York  is  small  an<l  the  death- 
rate  is  large,  being  liiiity  in  a  thousan<l,  as  against  nineteen  in  a  thou- 
sand for  the  while  impulation."-  John  (iilmer  Speed,  Kjoo. 

I  population  of  New  York  propi  1 ,  i,()i;<),()no.  | 

I   .V>7  I 


THE  CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

who  is  paid  well  for  his  work;  whose  sanitary  condi- 
tion is  the  subject  of  government  supervision,  and  who 
at  the  end  of  his  term  of  years  has  the  option  of  re- 
turning home  or  of  settling  in  the  colony. 

On  his  own  ground  in  tropical  Africa,  the  negro  has 
been  pushed  aside  by  a  race  of  man  inferior  to  him 
physically,  but  superior  in  qualities  that  are  essential 
to  success  on  a  sugar  plantation.  The  coolie  of  the 
East  Indies  is  spreading  from  Natal  to  other  parts  of 
Africa.  Many  of  them  are  already  settled  in  the 
Transvaal,  and  when  the  Cape  to  Cairo  railway  is 
opened  we  shall  find  them  up  and  down  the  whole 
length  of  the  continent,  pushing  the  black  man  further 
and  further  back  into  his  more  congenial  jungle. 

The  East  Indian  has  already  made  his  appearance 
in  the  West  Indies — I  have  seen  him  in  Trinidad  and 
in  British  Guiana,  and  wherever  he  shows  himself  it 
is  as  the  superior  of  the  negro,  not  only  in  trade,  but 
in  the  labor  of  the  field  as  w-ell. 

The  British  East  Indies  are  a  human  reservoir  con- 
taining some  250,000,000  mortals  more  or  less  subject 
to  death  from  starvation  at  home,  and  so  accustomed 
to  associate  the  English  Government  with  justice,  that 
they  do  not  hesitate  to  embark  for  the  most  distant 
plantations  provided  the  British  flag  is  over  them. 

Close  to  this  great  storehouse  of  human  energy  is 
another  with  three  or  four  hundred  millions  of  Chinese, 
who  also  show  the  capacity,  as  well  as  the  readiness,  to 
meet  the  negro  on  his  own  ground  and  beat  him  out 
of  the  field.  As  a  farmer  or  a  gardener,  a  coal  heaver  or 
a  laundry-man,  a  nursery-maid  or  a  banker,  he  is  incom- 
parable. I  have  seen  Chinamen  driving  camel-trains 
[  308  ] 


WEST  INDIES  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

in  a  blizzard  across  the  frontiers  of  Manchuria,  and 
again  have  I  seen  the  men  of  the  same  race  speeding 
along  in  the  blistering  heat  of  Singapore  with  huge 
baskets  of  coal  for  the  passing  mail-steamers.  This 
man  is  already  in  the  West  Indies,  and  when  he  turns 
his  attention  to  small  farming  in  those  islands  he  will 
develop  there  treasures  such  as  he  has  already  brought 
to  light  in  California,  in  Java,  and  in  the  Philippines. 

The  near  future  will  see  a  brighter  picture  in  the 
West  Indies.  We  shall  soon  have  four  races  on  four 
different  levels  of  capacity,  all  useful  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  islands,  but  of  them  all  the  black  will  be 
the  lowest. 

The  question  of  government  will  then  become  of 
still  greater  importance,  for  race  jealousy  will  beget 
political  friction,  and  government  in  such  cases  must 
be  strong  in  order  to  be  just. 

Already  in  the  West  Indies  are  many  communities 
of  white  men  trained  to  self-government.  British 
Guiana,  St.  Kitts,  Trinidad,  Barbados,  Antigua,  Ja- 
maica— these  all  are  a  nursery  of  colonial  legislators, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  Danish  islands  of  Santa  Cruz 
and  St.  Thomas,  whose  population  is  essentially  Eng- 
lish. The  French  islands  are  politically  in  a  less  satis- 
factory state,  because  of  the  large  admixture  of  negro 
blood  among  the  so-called  whites. 

The  Spanish  islands  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  are 
very  backwnrd  in  a  political  sense,  but  in  those  islands 
the  sjjrcad  of  education  and  Anglo-Saxon  institutions 
may  reasonably  be  expected  to  produce  :\  change  for 
the  bettor. 

But,  after  all,  tlic  most  important  consitUration  is 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  NATIONS 

in  regard  to  the  franchise.  The  West  Indies  would  be 
hopelessly  ruined  if  we  of  the  white  race,  after  con- 
quering this  part  of  the  world  and  then  building  up 
white  colonies  through  centuries  of  care,  should  now 
hand  them  over  to  be  governed  by  races  who  have 
shown  no  capacity  for  administration. 

The  franchise  should  be  granted  very  sparingly  and 
only  to  such  as  have  a  stake  in  the  country,  as  land- 
owners, for  instance.  The  maxim  should  be  empha- 
sized that  no  man  should  be  allowed  to  vote  taxes 
unless  he  himself  paid  taxes.  There  may  be  negroes 
who  are  fit  to  vote  in  the  United  States,  and  there  are 
many  whites  who  are  very  unfit — and  it  would  be  well 
for  us  if  we  could  so  frame  our  laws  as  to  exclude  the 
corrupt  or  worthless  voters  of  both  races.  But  in  the 
absence  of  such  laws  we  must  grope  our  way  in  the 
right  direction  as  well  as  we  can — and  at  least  not 
perpetuate  on  new  territory  political  principles  that 
have  proven  mischievous  among  ourselves. 

No  man  in  the'new  West  India  Federation  should 
vote  unless  he  satisfies  reasonable  requirements  regard- 
ing education,  property,  and  general  moral  character. 
Many  of  the  English  islands  already  furnish  us  good 
patterns  on  which  to  base  a  future  government — not- 
ably Jamaica,  Barbados,  or  British  Guiana.  The  gov- 
ernor should  be  appointed  by  the  Paramount  Power, 
and  this  governor  should  be  assisted  by  a  council  se- 
lected from  a  list  of  the  most  eminent  colonists,  who 
should  be  appointed  for  life  or  during  good  behavior; 
and  be  in  the  nature  of  a  Senate. 

Then  there  should  be  a  legislative  assembly  elected 
by  the  body  of  qualified  electors. 
[  310  ] 


WEST  INDIES  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

Acceptance  of  office  should  be  compulsory,  as  also 
should  be  the  casting  of  a  vote.  No  one  should  be 
excused  from  his  political  obligation  save  by  the  gov- 
ernor for  sufficient  reason.  The  governor  and  officials 
generally  should  be  paid  highly  in  order  to  ensure  the 
best  work  of  the  best  men — and  above  all  to  remove 
public  servants  from  the  temptation  of  making  money 
by  indirect  means. 

The  English  were  the  first  who  adopted  the  policy 
of  paying  their  public  servants  well,  and  they  did  so 
after  many  years  of  experience  in  India,  when  scandal 
after  scandal  warned  the  home  government  that  a 
radical  change  was  necessary. 

Spain  and  Holland  both  paid  their  colonial  servants 
very  poorly,  and  consequently  they  were  badly  served. 

At  this  time  the  United  States  consular  service  illus- 
trates this  proposition. 

Throughout  the  West  Indies,  as  elsewhere,  we  find 
the  American  consul  a  man  with  the  shiftless  habits  of 
the  "professional  politician;"  devoid  of  personal 
credit  among  Americans  and  despised  by  the  people 
of  other  countries;  unable  to  live  respectably  on  his 
salary,  and  prone  to  make  money  by  dishonest  means; 
a  man  more  apt  to  injure  the  American  sailor  by  his 
assistance  than  by  his  ill-will.  I  have  known  excep- 
tions to  this  rule — pooi  creatures  who  have  jicrsistcd 
long  in  one  island  because  they  had  come  to  like  it  and 
had  not  the  energy  to  try  something  else.  There  arc 
a  few  such  exceptions — I  have  run  across  thcni  in  1mi- 
rope  also — and  in  China.  lUit  they  are  so  very  scarce 
that  they  may  be  left  on  (jne  side  in  such  a  considera- 
tion as  this. 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

At  the  time  when  the  United  States  is  reconstruct- 
ing the  political  affairs  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico,  it 
would  have  been  of  great  use  to  us  had  we  been  as- 
sisted in  this  task  by  a  number  of  officials  who  were 
familiar  with  West  Indian  conditions — who  had  al- 
ready served  in  Cuba,  or  at  least  in  islands  of  cor- 
responding geographical  conditions.  This  same  want 
was  felt  in  the  Philippines. 

As  things  go,  we  must  improvise  our  officials  as 
well  as  we  can.  Our  first  Governor  of  Cuba  is  a  gen- 
eral of  volunteers  who  six  months  before  the  war  with 
Spain  was  an  assistant-surgeon  in  the  army.  In  a  few 
years  he  may  learn  something  of  the  island  and  the 
people,  and  then — he  may  be  turned  adrift  to  make 
room  for  another. 

The  first  Military  Governor  of  Havana  was  an  ex- 
cellent engineer  officer,  a  graduate  of  West  Point. 
Great  hopes  were  entertained  of  him  by  those  who 
enjoyed  his  personal  acquaintance — but  he  had  been 
scarcely  long  enough  in  Havana  to  know  where  the 
streets  and  sewers  were  located,  when  he  was  sent 
away  for  the  alleged  purpose  of  investigating  the  mili- 
tary systems  of  Europe.  General  ]\Ierritt  had  been  but 
a  few  weeks  in  command  at  Manila  when  he  also  got 
an  order  to  come  to  Paris  for  the  alleged  purpose  of 
giving  testimony  on  matters  about  which  he  was  ob- 
viously ignorant.    And  so  on ! 

At  this  moment  we  are  repeating  in  Cuba  and  the 
Philippines  the  same  political  faults  which  have  made 
Spanish  administration  a  by-word  throughout  the 
world.  Our  first  task  should  be,  therefore,  to  reor- 
ganize our  own  administration  on  a  business  basis,  so 
[  312  ] 


WEST  INDIES  TO-DAY  AND  TO-MORROW 

that  in  the  course  of  time  we  may  attract  to  our  colo- 
nial service  not  the  political  riff-raff,  the  professional 
failures,  the  social  tramps,  but  draw  to  the  government 
service  the  flower  of  our  well-educated  young  men, 
who  should  look  forward  to  political  life  of  this  nature 
with  as  much  confidence  and  enthusiasm  as  the  young 
West  Pointer  looks  forward  to  a  commission  at  the 
end  of  his  four  years  at  the  National  Academy. 

The  United  States  needs  a  colonial  West  Point— a 
school  in  which  young  men  shall  be  prepared  for  ad- 
ministrative positions  in  far-away  countries — a  school 
in  which  promotion  shall  follow  upon  good  work  and 
not  political  influence  alone.  With  such  a  school,  and 
an  honest  desire  for  the  welfare  of  the  colonies  under 
our  care,  we  may  hope  for  a  bright  future  in  the  West 
Indies. 


[  313  ] 


XXXI 

AUSTRALASIA 


"The  destiny  of  modern  democracies  is  foreshadowed  in  the  his- 
tory of  democracy  amongst  the  ancients.  It  is  the  struggle  of  the 
rich  and  poor  which  destroyed  them  as  it  will  destroy  us,  unless  we 
take  warning!  " — Laveleye  on  "Primitive  Property,"  Vol.  V. 

Indifference    of  the    Mother    Country    to  this  Colony — Startling 
Advances  in  Material  Wealth  and  Political  Experiment 

A  GEOGRAPHICAL  globe  and  half  a  dozen 
statistical  figures  tell  us  a  tale  of  Anglo-Saxon 
expansion  which  is  marvellous  to-day,  and  still 
more  wonderful  for  its  possibilities.  Australia  is  not 
only  the  largest  island  of  the  world,  but  a  continent 
containing  as  many  square  miles  as  the  United  States 
(3,000,000),  and  a  larger  population  of  English-speak- 
ing white  people  than  was  contained  in  the  United 
States  of  America  when  they  separated  from  the  mother 
country  in  1783.  On  the  North  American  continent 
are  French  in  Canada  and  Louisiana,  and  Spanish- 
speaking  Mexicans  across  the  Rio  Grande.  Through- 
out Australia,  including  Tasmania  and  New  Zealand, 
we  have  to-day  a  completely  homogeneous  population 
of  Anglo-Saxons  governing  themselves  successfully, 
and,  moreover,  showing  not  merely  the  capacity  to  look 
after  their  own  affairs,  but  in  case  of  need  to  despatch 
troops  in  defence  of  the  mother  country,  as  in  the  late 
[  314  ] 


AUSTRALASIA 


South  African  War.  As  we  in  America  celebrate  July 
4,  1776,  so  in  Australia  July  9,  1900,  is  the  date  held 
to  be  of  supreme  national  interest,  as  the  one  on  which 
was  finally  consummated  the  federation  of  the  differ- 
ent colonies,  New  South  Wales,  Victoria,  Queensland, 
South  Australia,  Western  Australia,  and  the  Island  of 
Tasmania.  New  Zealand,  for  our  purposes,  may  be 
loosely  regarded  as  part  of  Australia — the  same  lan- 
guage, race,  and  customs — but  being  1,200  miles  away 
from  the  main  island,  it  has  not  been  yet  found  con- 
venient to  regard  it  as  part  of  the  Australian  Federa- 
tion. In  this  respect  it  recalls  somewhat  the  early 
relations  of  Barbados  to  Virginia.  Both -colonies  rep- 
resented local  self-government  and  common  Anglo- 
Saxon  aspirations,  but  the  distance  between  them 
made  co-operation  practically  impossible  in  1776. 
When  I  first  sighted  the  Australian  coast  (1876),  that 
portion  of  the  globe  was  regarded  as  something  quite 
outside  of  the  great  current  of  human  interest.  The 
islands  of  the  neighborhood  were  treated  as  a  species 
of  No  Man's  land,  merchantmen  went  armed  when 
cruising  in  the  neighborhood,  and  the  interior  of  the 
great  continent  was  depicted  as  a  wilderness — to  be 
compared  with  the  so-called  Great  American  Desert, 
which  the  American  school-boy  of  that  time  has  since 
learned  to  conquer  and  cultivate. 

Australia  to-day  has  but  3,500,000  people  —  to 
3,000,000  s(|uare  miles.  When  she  shall  be  pc)i)ula(c(l 
to  the  present  density  of  the  mother  country,  her  popu- 
lation will  be  1,500,000,000 — figures  that  convey  lit- 
tle, merely  because  they  arc  so  enormous.  North 
America  is  still  a  land  of  the  future,  for  what  arc  scv- 
I   VS  1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

enty-five  or  eighty  millions  to  an  area  like  that  of  North 
America?  But  recent  events  in  the  Pacific  call  our 
attention  to  the  fact  that  west  of  the  American  conti- 
nent is  a  world  whose  future  is  no  less  interesting,  for 
it  is  to-day,  with  South  Africa,  one  of  the  great  links 
binding  together  the  English  -  speaking  empire 
throughout  the  world. 

Nor  is  it  merely  the  7,000  miles  of  Australian  coast- 
line which  makes  that  island  important.  Far  more 
interesting  from  the  colonial  point  of  view  is  the  po- 
litical influence  which  such  a  mass  of  energetic  white 
colonists  is  bound  to  exert  upon  the  countless  islands 
of  Polynesia,  that  great  South  Sea  wilderness  reach- 
ing from  New  Sidney  to  San  Francisco! 

A  striking  illustration  of  Australia's  new  position 
in  the  eastern  world  is  the  fact  that  her  people  vig- 
orously interfered  when  there  was  a  prospect  of  Ger- 
many's controlling  the  neighboring  island  of  New 
Guinea,  or  of  France's  founding  a  penal  colony  at  her 
gates.  England  took  Httle  interest  in  the  matter,  for 
she  attached  slight  commercial  importance  then  to 
that  huge  island.  But  Australia  looked  at  the  matter 
with  sentimental,  if  not  commercial,  eyes,  and  finally, 
upon  promising  to  pay  £15,000  annually  for  ten  years, 
succeeded  (November,  1884)  in  coaxing  a  reluctant 
mother  country  to  hoist  the  British  flag  upon  that 
portion  of  New  Guinea  which  had  not  yet  been  taken 
by  Holland  and  Germany.  That  was  at  a  time  when 
Bismarck  was  inaugurating  his  colonial  policy  by  run- 
ning up  the  German  flag  wherever  a  vacancy  could 
be  found.  New  Guinea  bears  about  the  same  relation 
to  Australia  that  Cuba  does  to  the  United  States,  and 
[  316  ] 


AUSTRALASIA 


Australians  have  already  formulated  something-  of  a 
silent  "  Monroe  doctrine,"  whose  purport  is  that  in 
any  future  scheme  of  colonization  in  her  neighborhood 
Europe  will  have  to  deal  directly,  not  with  Westmin- 
ster, but  with  the  Government  of  Federated  Colonies, 
whose  capital  is  to  be  in  New  South  Wales. 

Australasia  is  another  instance  of  a  colony  growing 
strong  through  the  wholesome  neglect  of  the  mother 
country.  Even  after  Captain  Cook's  landing,  in  1770, 
England  would  not  take  the  trouble  of  hoisting  her 
fiag  there.  She  finally  did  so  in  consequence  of  the 
American  War  of  Independence,  for  she  needed  a 
place  to  which  she  might  deport  those  of  her  people 
who  had  made  themselves  obnoxious  to  the  law  at 
home.  Prior  to  1776  such  as  these  were  sent  to  the 
Southern  States  of  the  United  States,  where  they  were 
welcomed  as  farm  apprentices  or  indentured  servants. 
At  that  time  men  were  sent  to  jail  for  being  in  debt 
and  for  many  crimes  which  to-day  would  be  passed 
over  very  lightly.  Hundreds  of  white  men  therefore 
left  their  native  land  in  convict-ships,  who  subse- 
quently proved  valuable  colonists  in  a  new  world. 

But  aside  from  sending  out  convicts  (from  1788 
down  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century),  Eng- 
land took  little  interest  in  this  far-away  possession; 
and  wlicn  finally  the  discovery  of  gold  brought  a 
rush  of  free  and  enterprising  settlers  from  all  parts  of 
the  world,  and  when  the  white  population  commenced 
to  clamor  for  local  self-government,  the  mother  coun- 
try made  no  objections — being  rather  pleased  than 
<jlherwisc  with  a  good  excuse  for  being  rid  of  heavy 
responsibility. 

I  3'7   I 


THE  CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

Australia  is  a  very  recent  thing  compared  with 
America.  New  South  Wales  and  Victoria  established 
responsible  government  in  1850,  New  Zealand  in 
1852,  Tasmania  in  1858,  South  Australia  in  1856, 
Queensland  in  1857,  and  Western  Australia  not  until 
1890. 

The  Australian  has  more  in  common  with  the  Amer- 
ican than  with  the  Englishman;  I  might  go  a  step  fur- 
ther and  say  that  all  colonials  of  British  ancestry  re- 
semble one  another  more  than  they  do  the  people  of  the 
mother  country.  I  venture  to  think  that  in  a  gath- 
ering of  Canadians,  Africanders,  Australians,  Ameri- 
cans, and  Englishmen,  the  man  from  the  home  coun- 
try would  be  the  least  understood.  Australians  have 
developed  a  manner  at  once  blunt  and  business-like — 
a  manner  springing  from  daily  contact  with  real 
things,  and  not  conventional  symbols.  An  Australian 
can  often  be  taken  for  a  Yankee — never  for  a  Lon- 
doner. 

The  present  constitution  of  Federated  Australia  is 
more  American  than  English,  though  it  is  the  work 
of  practical  men  seeking  for  a  good  working  machine 
and  not  given  to  declamatory  assertions  regarding  the 
abstract  rights  of  man. 

Under  this  new  constitution  the  individual  States 
reserve  to  themselves  all  rights  not  specifically  sur- 
rendered; in  this  respect  following  the  example  of  the 
United  States.  In  Canada  this  rule  is  reversed.  The 
Australian  Federal  Government  assumes  all  that  the 
United  States  Central  Government  does,  and  much 
more — for  instance,  marriage,  and  the  settlement  of 
industrial  disputes.  Railways  throughout  Australia 
[  318  ] 


AUSTRALASIA 


are  mainly  the  property  of  the  different  States,  and  it 
is  anticipated  that  the  Federal  Government  will  in 
time  control  interstate  lines  requiring  more  capital 
than  a  single  State  could  afford.*  The  State  is  to  run 
not  only  the  postal,  but  the  telephone  and  telegraph 
systems;  and  to  a  large  extent  do  the  work  now  mo- 
nopolized by  express  companies  in  America.  So  far, 
the  State  ownership  of  railways  has,  neither  in  Aus- 
tralia nor  South  Africa,  been  followed  by  the  harm 
that  we  of  America  anticipated.  On  the  contrary,  the 
public  have  benefited  to  a  highly  satisfactory  degree. 
It  is  worth  noting  that  the  experiment  of  nationaliz- 
ing railways,  which  at  one  time  seemed  to  be  a  peculi- 
arity of  military  monarchies  like  Germany  and  Russia, 
has  found  its  most  enthusiastic  defenders  in  ultra- 
democratic  communities  like  New  Zealand  and  Aus- 
tralia. 

Federated  Australia  has  followed  the  lead  of  the 
United  States  in  providing  not  only  a  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives elected  on  a  basis  of  proportional  popula- 
tion, but  a  Senate  to  which  each  State  sends  an  equal 
number  of  members,  irrespective  of  its  size  or  popula- 
tion. But  each  Australian  State  sends  six  senators, 
whereas  in  America  only  two  are  allowed  to  each 
State.  This  was  done  in  order  to  protect  the  smaller 
States  from  possible  domination  by  those  of  larger 
population,  for  while  Western  Australia  has  970,000. 
Tasmania  has  only  26,000.     So  far  as  the  right  to 

*  The  first  railway  in  Argentine  was  opcncil  in  iS(;7.  At  tlic  end  of 
lX()X  there  was  a  iillic  over  10,000  miles  <jf  truck  in  operation. 

Brazil  has  nearly  10,000  miles  of  railway. 

Japan  in  Kfoo  had  3,^.^5  miles  of  railway.  Australia  operates  mure 
miles  of  railway  to-day  than  any  Stale  of  South  America. 


I     .^>')    I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

vote  is  concerned,  Australia  has  practical  manhood 
suffrage — only  criminals  and  lunatics  are  excluded, 
and  the  Upper  House,  or  Senate,  is  elected  about  the 
same  as  the  Lower  House,  so  that  there  is  in  the  Aus- 
traHan  constitution  no  such  restraining  influence  as 
the  House  of  Lords  in  England  or  even  the  indirectly 
restraining  influence  that  exists  in  America,  where  the 
Senate  is  elected  by  the  legislatures  of  the  different 
States. 

Members  of  both  Houses  are  paid  alike,  £400  a  year, 
and  are  also  entitled  to  free  passage  over  the  State 
railways.  This  is  a  better  arrangement  than  with  us, 
where  the  railways  grant  passes  as  a  favor  to  those 
who  are  called  upon  to  make  laws.  Such  a  favor  comes 
perilously  near  to  being  a  bribe.  I  have  known  Ameri- 
can members  of  legislative  bodies  who  uniformly 
purchased  their  own  railway  tickets,  but  not  many. 
The  functions  of  Upper  and  Lower  House  in  United 
Australia  are  so  nearly  identical  that  an  American 
is  incHned  to  wonder  why  one  was  not  regarded  as 
sufficient.  Time  may  permit  the  Australian  Upper 
House  to  arrogate  to  itself  powers  not  at  present 
specified;  to-day  the  Australian  Senate  appears  to 
have  been  created  simply  in  order  to  give  each  of  the 
five  colonies  the  appearance  of  equality.  As,  however, 
the  five  States  together  return  only  thirty  Senators, 
we  may  safely  anticipate  a  superior  degree  of  dignity 
in  the  deliberations  of  that  body.  In  case  of  dead- 
lock there  can  be  a  joint  meeting  of  both  Houses,  when 
an  absolute  majority  must  prevail. 

The  American  Supreme  Court  has  been  reproduced 
in  Austraha  for  cases  affecting  the  interpretation  of 
[  320  ] 


AUSTRALASIA 


the  Constitution,  and  for  quarrels  between  States. 
This  Supreme  Court  can  permit  cases  to  be  referred 
to  the  London  Privy  Council,  but  the  colonies  have 
jealously  provided  that  it  shall  be  practically  within 
their  own  right  to  carry  a  case  to  London  or  dispose 
of  it  at  home. 

King  Edward  VIL  figures  as  the  nominal  head  of  the 
United  States  of  Australia,  and  his  Governor  nomi- 
nally directs  affairs,  but  practically  the  colony  is  as  in- 
dependent of  home-country  interference  as  Canada — 
or  Cape  Colony.  The  Boer  War  did  much  to  create 
that  warm  feeling  between  Australia  and  the  mother 
country  which  culminated  in  federation;  and  the  ex- 
ample set  by  Australia  will  no  doubt  do  much  to  en- 
courage South  Africa  in  her  turn  to  attempt  federa- 
tion as  a  cure  for  her  present  state  of  strained 
relations  between  her  several  States.  If  federation 
achieved  nothing  more  than  Free  Trade  between  the 
States,  that  alone  would  be  worth  heavy  sacrifices. 

The  Federation  of  Australia  was  long  in  coming — 
fortunately  it  was  not  accompanied  by  bloodshed — 
though  much  bitterness  had  to  be  overcome  before 
all  could  unite  on  a  few  vital  points.  Of  course  the 
question  of  custom  houses  roused  much  ill-feeling. 
for  all  those  who  believed  in  free  commercial  inter- 
course with  the  outside  world  felt  that  they  would 
sufifer  severely  when  a  tariff-wall  should  have  been 
reared  around  them,  forcing  them  to  pay  highly  for 
domestic  articles  after  having  been  accustomed  to  the 
cheap  and  exccllenl  things  hillierto  imported  free  of 
duty.  Our  Louisiana  and  Virginia  Stales  felt  thus 
when  the  manufacturing  interests  of  Massaciuisctts 
I   321   1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

and  Pennsylvania  placed  import  duties  on  articles 
needed  by  planters — this  matter  alone  did  much  to  pre- 
pare southern  public  opinion  for  secession  in  i860. 

Australian  Federation  took  its  rise  in  the  first  jubi- 
lee of  Queen  Victoria  (1887).  Englishmen  who  trav- 
elled commenced  to  popularize  the  notion  that  the 
various  colonies  of  Englishmen  scattered  throughout 
the  world  were  more  than  mere  isolated  subjects,  that 
they  formed  the  basis  of  an  empire  of  which  the  Eng- 
lish Sovereign  should  be  the  titular  head. 

George  Parkin,  now  Principal  of  the  ETpper  College 
in  Toronto,  was  one  of  the  pioneers  in  this  great  move- 
ment— a  movement  that  was  strengthened  by  the 
largely  increasing  stream  of  colonial  families  that 
returned  to  England  for  a  holiday  and  the  education 
of  their  children.  In  1889  General  Sir  Edward  Bevan 
Edwards  visited  Australia  with  a  view,  to  reporting  to 
the  British  Government  on  the  question  of  Colonial 
Defence,  and  naturally  he  advocated  an  Australian 
Union  of  States.  Sir  Harry  Parkes,  an  eminent  dip- 
lomat and  clear-headed  patriot,  whose  services  in 
China  entitle  him  to  grateful  recognition  by  Ameri- 
cans, took  advantage  of  this  visit  to  call  a  council  of 
Australasian  Prime  IMinisters,  who  met  in  1890,  cor- 
dially endorsed  the  notion  of  federation,  and  called 
upon  all  the  States  to  send  delegates  in  the  year  follow- 
ing to  a  congress  that  should  discuss  this  subject. 

All  the  States  sent  delegates,  including  New  Zea- 
land. Sir  Henry  Parkes  presided,  and  after  many 
weeks'  deliberation,  a  bill  w^as  drafted  which  has 
formed  the  basis  of  all  subsequent  legislation  on  this 
subject. 

[  322  ] 


AUSTRALASIA 


This  congress  (1891)  did  excellent  work,  but  it 
failed  to  excite  great  popular  enthusiasm,  because  its 
members  were  not  the  result  of  direct  popular  elec- 
tion— and  public  sentiment  was  not  yet  sufficiently 
educated  on  the  subject. 

The  matter  was  once  more  taken  up  in  earnest  in 
1895.  A  meeting  of  Premiers  was  held  in  Tasmania, 
and  here  it  was  determined  to  hold  a  convention  of 
delegates  elected  by  direct  popular  vote.  This  con- 
vention met  in  1897,  the  year  of  Queen  Victoria's 
second  jubilee.  The  central  feature  of  this  great 
jubilee  was  a  festive  procession  in  London,  which 
included  representatives  from  every  British  colony, 
and  gave  the  world  an  object-lesson  of  Anglo-Saxon 
unity  and  power. 

Finally,  by  the  close  of  1899,  in  the  midst  of  the 
South  African  War,  the  last  difficulties  were  overcome, 
and  on  July  9,  1900,  United  Australia  took  her  place 
not  merely  as  one  of  the  great  colonies  of  England,  but 
as  the  mightiest  centre  of  Anglo-Saxon  energy  in  the 
Far  East.  No  other  nation  has  such  a  base  for  future 
operations  in  the  South  Pacific  as  Australia.  French, 
Dutch,  and  Germans  may  have  coaling  stations  and 
Crown  colonies  in  those  latitudes — the  Anglo-Saxon 
has  here  a  nursery  of  his  own  llesli  and  blood  which  is 
growing  stronger  every  day,  and  as  it  grows,  relieves 
the  mother  country  of  iniuli  expense  connected  with 
maintaining  connnerce  bey(jnd  Suez. 

In  the  event  of  a  future  i'.nropc'an  war  in  uliirh 
England  nii^Iil  rc'inire  tlic  wliok-  of  iier  lU'cl  ;il  lionio, 
it  will  be  found  that  Australia  will  prove  luMself  (.-iinal 
not  only  to  protecting  her  own  shores,  bnt   also  to 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  NATIONS 

equipping  a  navy  that  will  protect  Hong-Kong,  Singa- 
pore, and  other  exposed  stations.  At  any  rate,  little 
England  of  the  Northern  Hemisphere  may  draw  com- 
fort from  the  thought  that,  so  far  as  the  Southern 
Pacific  is  concerned,  her  big  children  are  quite  ready 
to  accept  the  responsibility  of  maintaining  themselves 
in  that  part  of  the  world,  without  calling  upon  the 
mother  country  for  more  than  benevolent  neutrality. 
New  Zealand  is  a  small  thing  compared  with  Aus- 
tralia, yet  it  is  as  large  as  all  England  and  Scotland 
and  Wales,  with  half  of  Ireland  thrown  in.  It  stretches 
over  a  thousand  miles  from  north  to  south,  and  while 
it  is  1,200  miles  from  the  continent  of  AustraHa,  it 
is  nearly  5,000  miles  from  the  nearest  port  in  South 
America,  with  nothing  between  but  the  lonesome 
Pacific.  This  favored  island  has  a  magnificent  tem- 
perate climate;  and  pretty  much  everything  required 
by  the  white  man  is  here  grown  in  abundance  It  was 
only  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Victoria  that  New  Zealand 
was  reluctantly  incorporated  by  the  British  Empire 
— indeed  it  is  a  curious  commentary  on  human  falli- 
bility that,  while  fieet  upon  fleet  has  been  destroyed 
in  struggles  over  wretched  little  islets  in  the  waters 
of  the  Caribbean  Sea,  the  vast  territories  in  the  South- 
em  Hemisphere,  notably  Australasia  and  South  Africa, 
should  have  been,  throughout  the  earlier  years  of  the 
19th  centur}%  treated  as  not  worth  annexing.  There  is 
very  good  reason  to  think  that  the  extraordinary  alac- 
rity with  which  England  accorded  complete  autonomy 
to  her  children  in  the  Southern  Hemisphere  arose 
largely  from  indifference  to  their  existence — pos- 
sibly from  a  desire  to  be  rid  of  them  as  cheaply  as 
[  324  ] 


AUSTRALASIA 


possible.  In  1850  few  people  dreamed  that  Ger- 
mans would  colonize  Shantung,  Russians  fortify  Port 
Arthur,  or  that  war-ships  would  be  built  in  Cali- 
fornia. 

New  Zealand  to-day  offers  a  picture  of  state  social- 
ism carried  further  than  in  any  other  democratic  com- 
munity. The  railways  are  in  the  hands  of  the  State,  as 
elsewhere  in  Australasia;  but  in  addition  to  that  the 
Government  has  practically  undertaken  to  control  the 
relations  between  capital  and  labor. 

New  Zealand  boldly  decrees  eight  hours  as  the 
length  of  a  day's  work,  pensions  every  workingman  in 
his  old  age,  furnishes  a  seat  for  the  shop-girl,  and  in 
many  other  respects  steps  in  between  the  employer 
and  employe  in  a  manner  suggesting  fatherly,  if  not 
socialistic,  legislation.  This  colony  is  determined  that 
there  shall  be  no  strikes  or  lock-outs,  and,  therefore, 
when  disputes  arise  between  employers  and  employees, 
arbitration  is  made  compulsory.  Under  such  a  sys- 
tem, where  all  political  power  is  created  by  the  laboring 
man,  tribunals  are  apt  to  be  in  his  interest;  yet  there 
are  many  earnest  writers  in  that  colony  who  are  not 
discouraged  by  their  experience  in  this  matter.  Those 
of  us  who  have  followed  the  course  of  gigantic  strikes 
in  the  United  States  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury, must  concede  that  any  arrangement  that  could 
free  us  from  the  present  uncertainty  on  this  vexed  sub- 
ject would  contain  enotigh  of  blessing  to  make  us 
readily  i)ut  nj)  with  nuich  discomfort. 

Alre.'idy  in  i8<jo,  according  to  llie  oflici.'il  reports 
of  the  agent  for  New  Zealand  in  London,  tlu-  .State 
was  the  largest  receiver  of  rents  and  the  largest  em- 
I  .^^'5   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

ployer  of  labor  in  the  colony.  It  owned  nearly  all 
the  telegraphs,  railways,  and  telephones  in  the  coun- 
try. It  controlled  and  supported  the  hospitals  and 
lunatic  asylums,  and  virtually  dispensed  all  the  public 
charity  throughout  the  colony.  Its  officials  did  all 
the  law  business  connected  with  the  transfer  of  land, 
a  branch  of  work  which  enriches  many  London  and 
New  York  lawyers.  Australia  has  set  a  shining  ex- 
ample to  the  rest  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  world  in  facili- 
tating land  transfer  by  means  of  a  very  simple  and 
inexpensive  system  of  land  registration.  New  Zea- 
land has  also  sought  to  limit  the  evils  springing  from 
the  monopoly  of  the  soil,  and  therefore  grants  leases 
for  terms  of  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  years,  tak- 
ing in  return  an  amount  of  interest  (four  per  cent.) 
which,  while  it  does  not  wholly  absorb  the  unearned 
increment,  yet  makes  it  unlikely  that  any  person 
would  hold  land  without  making  use  of  it. 

This  colony  also  takes  charge  of  estates,  as  trustees 
— and  may  be  named  as  executor.  In  other  words,  the 
State  regards  itself  as  the  head  of  a  family.  We  that 
have  been  reared  in  the  hard  school  of  Cobden  and 
Adam  Smith,  stand  by  complacently  while  the  weak 
go  to  the  wall  and  the  masters  of  finance  grasp  the 
reins  of  power.  New  Zealand  declares  that  such  a 
state  of  society  is  undesirable,  and  that  for  their  part 
they  mean  to  experiment  in  hopes  of  finding  some- 
thing better.  We  are  pretty  well  agreed  that  Henry 
George  made  a  masterly  analysis  of  modern  society 
in  his  "  Progress  and  Poverty  " — but  it  is  not  yet  un- 
derstood to  what  extent  his  remedy  can  be  applied  with 
success.     At  any  rate,  the  experiment  of  New  Zea- 

[    Z2e    ] 


AUSTRALASIA 


land  deserves  close  attention — whatever  may  be  its 
result. 

Of  course  education  in  New  Zealand,  as  throughout 
Australasia,  is  free  and  compulsory. 

Large  estates  are  discouraged  by  a  graduated  in- 
come tax,  which  rests  lightly  upon  the  man  of  small 
means,  but  takes  a  great  deal  out  of  the  rich  ones. 
The  influence  of  Henry  George  is  seen  in  a  law  of  New 
Zealand  which  exempts  improvements  and  buildings 
on  a  farm,  and  taxes  solely  the  land  itself.  Small 
farmers  are  altogether  exempt.  Land  worth  £5,000 
is  taxed  one  penny  in  the  pound  on  the  capital  value. 
The  tax  rises  with  the  value,  culminating  at  three  pence 
in  the  pound  on  land  of  £210,000,  or  more,  value. 
Everyone  votes  in  New  Zealand,  women  as  well  as 
men. 

We  must  not  think  of  our  New  Zealand  State  So- 
cialists as  we  do  of  those  in  France  and  Germany,  who 
deal  almost  exclusively  with  theories  so  blended  with 
truth  that  the  practical  politician  has  difficulty  in  using 
them.  The  New  Zealander  is  a  practical  Englishman, 
who  deliberately  undertakes  experiments  on  new  soil 
and  under  favorable  conditions  which  it  would  be  al- 
most revolutionary  to  attempt  in  England  or  any  other 
old  country  where  men  arc  bound  down  by  social 
prejudice  and  tradition.  Even  in  America,  men  wlio 
advocate  such  reforms  as  New  Zealand  is  now  enjo}  ing 
are  pronounced  to  be  cranks. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that,  with  insignificant  cx- 
cci)tions,  all  the  conununities  of  white  men  south  of 
the  Ju|uator  are  eiliier  republics  in  name  or  enjoy 
practical    sclf-goveriMueiil.      (  )f    these    coninuinitics 

I   .^-7   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

South  America  furnishes  the  earliest  settlements,  and 
also  a  priority  as  regards  the  time  when  most  of  them 
cast  ofif  the  yoke  of  Spain  and  declared  themselves 
independent.  Brazil  was  the  last  to  become  a  repubhc 
in  name,  though  in  fact  she  has  throughout  this  cen- 
tury enjoyed  a  fairly  liberal  constitutional  rule.  Brit- 
ish Guiana  has  enjoyed  much  local  liberty,  though  in 
dealing  with  so  vast  a  territory  as  South  America  we 
can  afford  to  ignore  the  three  Guianas  entirely,  even 
were  they  in  the  Southern  Hemisphere. 

The  two  South  African  Republics  were  created  at 
about  the  same  time  that  the  various  States  of  Aus- 
tralia were  granted  Responsible  Government,  and  the 
English  colonies  of  the  Cape  and  Natal  have  enjoyed 
virtual  Home  Rule  even  when  ostensibly  they  figured 
as  mere  Crown  colonies.  South  Africa,  Australia,  and 
South  America  are  now  dominated  by  the  white  man. 
In  each  of  these  continents  the  natives  are  being  ex- 
terminated. In  Australia  there  are  about  50,000  left, 
in  Africa  even  the  negro  cannot  hold  his  own  against 
the  imported  laborer  from  Bombay;  and  as  for  South 
America,  if  we  limit  ourselves  to  Chili,  Peru,  and  the 
adjacent  territory,  we  may  safely  regard  the  day  of 
the  native  as  having  passed,  and  the  day  of  the  white 
man,  or  at  least  the  Chinaman,  as  having  arrived. 
South  America,  however,  is  handicapped  in  having 
behind  her  centuries  of  clerical  misrule,  and  a  popula- 
tion largely  made  up  of  negro  elements.  The  white 
man  of  South  Africa  and  Australia  has  been  wiser  in 
this  respect,  and  has  not  sought  to  multiply  at  the  ex- 
pense of  his  racial  purity.  Australia  is  the  youngest 
of  these  great  communities  of  the  Southern  Hemi- 
[  328  ] 


AUSTRALASIA 


sphere,  she  is  the  most  homogeneous,  the  most  en- 
lightened, the  least  hampered  by  tradition,  the  most 
ready  to  adopt  new  ideas  and  experiment  with  new 
theories.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  she 
should  in  the  past  fifty  years  have  pushed  ahead  more 
rapidly  than  South  Africa,  to  say  nothing  of  the  Argen- 
tine and  Chili.  She  furnishes  us  one  of  the  few 
examples  in  history  of  a  great  agglomeration  of  States 
uniting  into  one  organic  whole  through  the  mere  force 
of  common-sense  unaided  by  fear  of  a  common  enemy. 
We  may  live  to  see  the  United  States  of  South  America, 
as  well  as  the  United  States  of  South  Africa — when 
that  time  comes,  Australia  may  have  occasion  to  fear 
for  her"  supremacy  in  the  Southern  Hemisphere — but 
not  before. 


[  329  ] 


XXXII 

CAN   THE  WHITE  MAN   AND    HIS   WIFE 
FLOURISH    IN   THE  TROPICS 

"We  belong  to  that  race  whose  obvious  task  it  is  .  .  .  to 
spread  civil  liberty  .  .  .  in  every  part  of  the  earth,  on  conti- 
nent and  isle. "  Francis  Lieber,"  Civil  Liberty  and  Self-gov- 
ernment," p.  21. 

Railways  and  Sanitation  Essentials  to  the  White  Man's  Happiness 
in  the  Tropics — Heat  Itself  not  Dangerous 

UP  to  within  this  generation,  which  we  may 
roughly  designate  as  the  period  of  universal 
steam  communication,  white  man's  efforts  in 
the  tropics  have  been  largely  measured  by  English 
experience  in  the  East  Indies  and  Africa  under  cir- 
cumstances not  calculated  to  give  this  question  a  fair 
test.  Up  to  1855,  British  India  was  a  practical  mo- 
nopoly in  the  hands  of  a  vast  chartered  trading  com- 
pany, which  built  forts,  maintained  troops  on  land  and 
sea,  and  sent  out  agents,  with  no  other  object  than  pro- 
ducing dividends  for  shareholders  in  London.  Before 
the  general  use  of  steam  in  those  regions,  when  a  jour- 
ney home  around  the  Cape  meant  the  best  part  of  a 
year  at  sea,  a  colonial  official  was  forced  to  remain  at 
his  post,  however  unhealthy  it  might  be;  for  it  was 
not  possible,  as  it  is  to-day,  to  run  off  by  rail  for 
change  of  air  in  the  hills,  or  by  the  sea-side. 
[  330  ] 


THE   WHITE   MAN    IN   THE   TROPICS 

So  it  was  with  the  Philippines.  The  white  mer- 
chants there  did  not  dare  take  their  wives  out  with 
them,  because  of  the  monotonous  conditions  enforced 
by  isolation.  In  the  early  part  of  this  century  invalids 
from  the  East  Indies  had  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  as 
their  nearest  recruiting  station,  which,  though  less 
than  half  the  distance  to  Europe,  was  yet  a  long  and 
costly  journey  at  best.  To-day  the  merchant  of  Singa- 
pore or  Manila  can  take  an  annual  holiday  with  his 
wife  and  children  to  many  bracing  resorts,  compara- 
tively near  at  hand;  as,  for  instance,  the  hill  country 
about  Nagasaki,  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Pitchili,  or, 
due  south  to  New  Zealand.  Even  the  journey  to 
Europe  is  only  thirty  days,  as  against  a  hundred  and 
thirty  at  least,  fifty  years  ago,  in  the  days  of  sailing 
ships. 

The  great  Dark  Continent  was,  in  my  childhood,  a 
land  of  horror,  into  which  a  few  daring,  if  not  reck- 
less, enthusiasts  had  penetrated,  only  to  emerge  with 
tales  of  pestilence  and  human  savagery  far  from  en- 
couraging to  would-be  colonists.  Here  and  there 
along  the  coast  were  trading  stations,  to  which  men 
ventured  at  a  very  high  salary,  with  a  clear  under- 
standing that  the  chances  were  rather  opposed  to 
their  coming  home  alive. 

It  is  also  notable  that  while  the  closing  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century  were  almost  exclusively  occupied 
in  savage  struggles  for  the  possession  of  colonics,  the 
close  of  the  Napoleonic  wars  left  luiropc,  and  notably 
England,  strangely  apathetic  on  the  subject.  In  the 
great  "  Seven  Years'  War,"  which  closed  in  17^^^.  h.ilf 
the  world  had  ijceii  ablaze;  war  was  wagcil  in  Canada, 
[  331  ] 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

the  West  Indies,  India,  and  the  Malay  Islands;  every 
sea  was  alive  with  the  war-ships  of  European  powers, 
staking  their  last  drop  of  blood  in  the  violent  acquisi- 
tion of  mainly  tropical  territory.  Barely  two  genera- 
tions later,  and  we  find  England  declining  to  accept 
New  Zealand  when  offered  to  her  by  English  settlers; 
treating  Australia  as  a  financial  burden,  useful  only  as 
a  dumping-ground  for  criminals;  discussing  in  Parlia- 
ment whether  India  be  worth  defending;  questioning 
the  value  of  Hong-Kong,  and  even  refusing  to  be  re- 
sponsible for  territories  in  South  Africa  which  in  1900 
were  deemed  worth  fighting  for  with  200,000  British 
troops. 

This  strange  apathy  regarding  colonies  which  ruled 
from  the  close  of  the  Napoleonic  wars  down  to  the 
time  when  the  German  Government  provoked  the  par- 
tition of  Africa  in  1890,  was  based  in  the  first  instance 
upon  the  general  depreciation  in  value  of  tropical  land, 
consequent  upon  anti-slavery  agitation.  This  senti- 
ment was  fortified  by  Englishmen  like  Cobden  and 
Bright,  who  opposed  Imperialistic  measures.  But, 
above  all,  at  least  so  far  as  the  tropics  were  concerned, 
the  home  country  felt  it  to  be  a  waste  of  money  to 
bother  about  countries  that  promised  returns  only  to  a 
few  traders  and  missionaries.  To-day,  however,  men 
yet  in  the  prime  of  hfe  can  mark  a  revolution  on  this 
subject,  and  we  need  not  be  more  than  fairly  sanguine 
to  anticipate  a  still  greater  one  in  the  lives  of  our  chil- 
dren. We  have  seen  equatorial  countries  once  con- 
demned as  uninhabitable  grow  to  contain  a  busy  and 
vigorous  white  population.  Let  us  give  credit  to  the 
brave  Boers  who  first  demonstrated  that  the  white 
[  ZZ2  I 


THE   WHITE   MAN    IN    THE   TROPICS 

man  could  bring  up  large  families  and  found  healthy 
communities  in  the  interior  of  South  Africa.  Natal, 
on  the  coast,  is  a  tropical  country,  yet,  thanks  to  an 
excellent  sanitary  administration,  its  white  population 
is  flourishing.  The  citizen  of  Durban  can  in  a  few 
hours  take  his  wife  and  family  to  an  elevation  of  four 
or  five  thousand  feet,  where  the  nights  are  dry  and  cold 
as  in  the  Adirondacks.  This  was  impossible  ten  years 
ago,  and  in  the  days  when  you  and  I  went  to  school 
this  colony  was  looked  upon  as  unfit  for  white  habita- 
tion. So  far  as  I  know,  Natal  is  the  only  tropical  col- 
ony in  Africa  where  white  people  live  in  comfort  with 
wife  and  children;  but  if  others  do  not,  it  is  not  be- 
cause God  has  been  unkind  to  them,  but  that  they  have 
not  shown  the  same  energy  in  draining  the  land  and 
building  railways  to  the  high  lands  of  the  interior. 

In  British  Guiana,  where  Demerara  suggests  a  trop- 
ical Holland — a  colony  showing  its  Dutch  ancestry  by 
the  excellence  of  its  canals  and  the  tidiness  of  its 
streets — the  white  man  is  within  seven  degrees  of  the 
equator,  between  the  Amazon  and  the  Orinoco,  yet 
such  eminent  authorities  as  Darnell  Davis  have  given 
me  assurance  that  generations  of  white  people  have 
flourished  there,  thanks  to  the  local  sanitary  condition 
fortified  by  the  constant  breezes  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 
On  the  occasion  of  my  visit  to  that  colony  I  found  no 
inconvenience  from  moving  about  at  night  in  a  man- 
ner that  woulfl  have  stretched  mc  out  with  a  fovor 
in  French  Gmrma,  which  is  i)ractically  the  same  i:!;cct- 
gnipliical  bit  of  coiuitry.  l)ritish  Guiana  is  the  Natal 
of  South  Auicrira,  a  clean,  healthy,  woll-govcrncd 
oasis  in  a  wilderness  of  allege<l  republics.  She  enjoys 
[  33.S   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

the  advantage  of  rapid  and  frequent  intercourse  with 
Barbados  and  the  rest  of  the  world,  but  it  would  be 
of  enormous  service  if  a  railway  were  constructed 
through  Demerara  to  the  mountains  at  the  head  waters 
of  the  Esequibo;  for  then  her  people  would  have  the 
means  of  rapidly  reaching  a  bracing  mountain  air  at 
comparatively  slight  cost  of  time  and  money.  Hong- 
Kong  and  Manila  are  practically  in  the  same  latitude, 
so  far  as  the  thermometer  is  concerned,  and,  therefore, 
what  the  white  man  could  do  in  the  one  he  should  be 
able  to  do  in  the  other  as  well.  The  British  Govern- 
ment occupied  Hong-Kong  in  1841,  less  than  sixty 
years  ago,  and  of  course  it  is  too  soon  to  generalize. 
But  so  far  as  the  testimony  of  old  merchants  is  con- 
cerned, it  is  an  island  where  white  children  are  born 
and  reared,  and  w^hile  the  climate  is  not  to-day  as  fa- 
vorable to  them  as  that  of  the  mother  country,  still 
each  day  brings  about  an  improvement  in  the  means 
of  making  life  there  better  worth  living.  In  the  early 
years  of  that  colony  the  English  Government  seriously 
discussed  its  total  abandonment  on  the  ground  of  its 
unhealthiness.  Since  then  drainage  and  an  excellent 
water  supply  have  made  the  place  satisfactory  for  short 
residence,  while  a  railway,  which  runs  to  the  top  of  the 
mountain  at  the  centre  of  the  island,  now  enables  the 
white  merchant  to  keep  his  wife  and  children  in  a  brac- 
ing atmosphere,  to  which  he  resorts  every  night  after 
business  hours. 

At  Manila,  the  white  man  finds  life  agreeable  enough, 

provided  his  house  be  on  the  shore  where  he  gets  the 

benefit  of  the  breezes  from,  the  bay.  But  we  need  more 

than  this;    and  the  Government  should  immediately 

[  334  ] 


THE   WHITE   MAN   IN   THE   TROPICS 

construct  and  operate,  for  military  as  well  as  other  pur- 
poses, a  railway  with  frequent  and  rapid  train  service 
to  the  mountains  in  the  neighborhood.  Our  fleet  and 
army  need  a  health  resort  in  the  tropics,  and  the  money 
spent  in  this  way  would  be  saved  a  hundred-fold  by 
the  increased  efficiency  of  our  forces  in  Chinese  waters. 
The  white  merchant  needs  a  comfortable  home  for  his 
wife  and  children,  and  no  step  taken  by  our  Govern- 
ment would  tend  more  to  the  civilization  of  the  coun- 
try, than  properly  organized  white  homes.  The  white 
man  in  the  Philippines  has  so  far  given  the  natives  a 
sad  picture  of  immorality — of  concubinage  with  na- 
tive women — of  gambling  and  drunkenness.  This  state 
of  things  we  are  apt  to  attribute  to  the  climate,  when, 
in  fact,  it  proceeds  from  our  own  indifference  to  sani- 
tary laws.  During  my  stay  in  Manila,  at  the  time  of 
the  war  with  Spain,  I  found  the  hospitals  where  Ameri- 
can troops  were  cared  for — to  say  nothing  of  the  bar- 
racks— so  foul,  from  a  sanitary  point  of  view,  that  an 
epidemic  should  reasonably  have  been  anticipated.  I 
tried  to  paddle  my  canoe  through  the  canals  opening 
from  the  Pasig  River,  and  at  points  where  the  stench 
arrested  my  further  progress  mothers  were  bathing 
their  children  and  American  volunteers  were  absorbing 
foul  germs.  Is  it  a  wonder  that  mortality  is  high  at 
such  places?  Is  it  not  a  miracle  that  any  of  our  troops 
should  return  alive? 

We  hear  much  of  the  tropical  comnumitics  where 
quarantine  takes  the  place  of  sanitation,  but  the  news- 
papers have  no  time  to  tell  of  the  many  (|uiet  and  pros- 
perous cf)mmiuiitii'S  thai  cieaii  their  streets  and  Hush 
their  drains,  and  tlicrcforc  live  in  the  tropics  as  wrlj 
I    .US   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

as  in  Boston  or  Liverpool.  Manila,  under  Spanish 
rule,  was  a  filthy,  unhealthy  place,  and  it  will  remain 
so  under  American  rule  unless  our  administration 
profits  by  experience. 

In  the  West  Indies,  Havana  has  been  in  a  chronic 
state  of  contaminating  filthiness  ever  since  it  had 
enough  people  there  to  poison  the  soil,  the  water,  and 
the  air.  The  harbor  has  no  tide  worth  mentioning, 
and  the  filth  that  flows  into  it  remains  at  the  doors 
of  the  city.  Cuba  needs  a  strong  sanitary  government 
in  Havana,  as  do  the  Philippines.  In  both  cases  rail- 
way construction  in  all  directions  should  be  regarded 
as  the  most  effective  means  of  developing  the  interior 
and  asserting  the  beneficent  supremacy  of  our  Gov- 
ernment. We  should  be  able  to  do  with  ease  in  Cuba 
and  Porto  Rico  what  other  white  men  have  done  in 
other  parts  of  the  West  Indies,  notably  at  Jamaica,  St. 
Kitts,  Antigua,  and  Barbados,  where  white  English- 
men live  and  have  lived  for  many  generations. 

Nor  let  us  omit  to  notice  one  factor  that  has  injured 
the  West  Indies  no  less  than  English  possessions  in 
other  tropical  countries.  It  has  been  the  policy  of 
the  Crown  to  fill  colonial  offices  very  largely  by  men 
born  in  the  home  country.  This  has  its  advantages 
for  certain  high  posts  where  it  is  necessary  that  an 
executive  officer  be  raised  well  above  local  party  dif- 
ferences. But  it  is  the  part  of  political  wisdom  to 
encourage  as  far  as  possible  the  colonists  themselves 
to  take  an  interest  in  their  own  government,  by  open- 
ing to  them  careers  in  their  own  colony,  rather  than 
by  forcing  them  to  look  elsewhere  for  recognition. 
While  England  has  for  many  years  been  sending  to 
[  336^] 


THE   WHITE   MAN    IN   THE  TROPICS 

the  West  Indies  officials  from  the  home  country,  those 
islands  have  been  at  the  same  time  furnishing  to  the 
United  States  a  number  of  Creole  emigrants  that  have 
risen  to  eminence,  and  would  have  been  most  useful 
colonial  ofEcials  had  the  opportunity  offered  itself  to 
them. 

Officials  who  come  to  the  West  Indies  from  Eu- 
rope, remain  as  a  rule  but  for  a  limited  number  of  years, 
cannot  identify  themselves  closely  with  the  colony,  do 
not  as  a  rule  bring  a  family  with  them,  and  frequently 
carry  away  their  salary  to  spend  it  at  home.  Were  it 
the  rule  to  reserve  such  posts  for  men  born  in  the  colo- 
nies, or  at  least  educated  there  and  identified  with 
Creole  needs,  England  would  be  better  instructed  in 
regard  to  many  of  her  children  and  we  should  have 
fuller  evidence  regarding  the  capacity  of  our  race  to 
make  the  tropics  their  home. 

It  is  of  great  importance  to  us  to  note  that  in  nearly 
all  the  West  Indian  islands  are  lofty  mountains  emi- 
nently suitable  for  health  resorts.  In  most  of  these 
islands  white  people  could  live  as  comfortably  as  in 
Virginia  or  Kentucky,  if  the  Government  did  but  open 
the  high  land  of  the  interior  to  settlement,  as  has  been 
done  in  South  Africa,  thanks  to  the  Boers  and  the 
government  railways. 

Of  course  all  extremes  of  heal,  as  well  as  of  cold,  arc, 
in  general,  prejudicial  to  happy  life,  and  far  be  it  from 
me  to  advocate  white  man's  migration  to  i)laces  un- 
suited  to  his  daily  comfort.  lUil,  as  I  have  i)ointcd 
out,  many  j)l;i(cs  that  wore  once  universally  regarded 
as  uninlialjitablc,  or,  at  least,  dangerous  to  IkmIiIi.  have 
proved  to  be  suitable  .'iftcr  a  few  years  of  connnon- 
I   .U7   I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 


sense  administration.  And  it  is  equally  clear  that 
many  places  which  to-day  have  an  evil  name,  notably 
Manila  and  Cuba,  will,  under  proper  administration, 
become  satisfactory  places  for  white  men  and  women. 
I  do  not  say  that  they  will  prove  merely  equal  to  New 
Orleans  or  Marseilles — that  would  not  be  saying  much 
— but  rather  that  they  will  resemble  Durban  in  Africa 
or  Georgetown  in  Demerara. 

The  present  state  of  life  in  the  tropics,  where  sani- 
tary conditions  are  not  satisfactory,  is  apt  to  produce 
a  community,  mainly  of  young  men,  who  lend  them- 
selves naturally  to  the  doctrine  that  whiskey  is  a  pre- 
ventive of  malaria.  Indeed,  it  is  noticeable  that  peo- 
ple who  yield  to  an  appetite  usually  find  a  plausible 
pretext  for  so  doing.  At  any  rate,  nowhere  in  the 
world  have  I  noted  so  much  promiscuous  cocktailing 
at  all  hours  of  the  day  as  in  tropical  colonies  where, 
of  all  places,  water  should  be  regarded  as  the  one  safe 
drink.  Of  course,  in  most  cases,  the  man  who  in- 
dulges remarks  that  he  feels  the  need  of  something  for 
the  sake  of  his  stomach.  It  is  not  by  accident  that 
Arabs,  Chinese,  Malays,  and  Hindoos,  to  say  nothing 
of  negroes,  regard  water  as  man's  natural  drink.  The 
universal  use  of  tea  in  China  arises  from  the  pollution 
of  the  water  and  the  consequent  necessity  of  boiling 
it  first  as  a  preventive  against  enteric  complaints. 
China  and  Japan  are  not  free  from  dysentery,  but  the 
marvel  is,  in  China  at  least,  that  there  is  any  popula- 
tion at  all,  seeing  that  the  wells  are  nearly  all  con- 
taminated. Such  as  have  studied  the  question  of  white 
expeditions  in  Africa  assure  me  that  the  worst  water 
is  better  than  alcoholic  drink — that  in  all  cases  where 
[  338  ] 


THE   WHITE   MAN    IN   THE   TROPICS 

alcohol  has  been  kept  from  the  men,  the  advantages 
have  been  fully  acknowledged  subsequently. 

Now,  when  a  tropical  community  is  composed,  as 
it  frequently  is  to-day,  mainly  of  young  bachelors  with 
large  salaries  and  abundant  animal  spirits,  it  is  but 
natural  that  such  a  community  should  convince  itself 
that  after  all  it  is  better  to  enjoy  a  short  and  merry 
life,  than  take  any  chances  of  a  long  one.  And,  in 
many  cases,  thanks  to  a  good  sweat  every  day  on  the 
tennis  or  polo  field,  the  young  men  on  tropical  sta- 
tions have  not  only  known  how  to  live  a  merry  life, 
but  a  tolerably  long  one  as  well,  though  the  most  of 
them  have  returned  home  with  permanently  enfeebled 
constitutions. 

Every  white  woman  to-day,  if  she  realized  the  in- 
terests of  her  sex,  would  agitate  politically  for  the 
sanitation  of  the  tropical  world  and  the  building  of  rail- 
ways to  the  hills,  for  only  when  that  is  done  can  some- 
thing be  accomplished  for  the  unhappy  surplus  of 
womanhood  which  has  to  stay  at  home,  while  brothers, 
husbands,  and  sweethearts  are  off  in  India,  Borneo, 
Sumatra,  Jamaica — throughout  the  hot  belt — earning 
the  money  on  which  they  hope  to  come  home  and 
marry — usually  at  an  age  when  they  are  uninteresting 
to  women  and  a  bore  to  thcMnsclvcs.  It  is  a  maxim 
in  the  theatrical  and  literary  world  that  when  woman 
wants  a  thing  she  finds  means  of  securing  it.  Now 
let  her  realize  that  under  certain  conditions  she  can 
follow  her  sweetheart  in  safety  to  the  tropics — that  she 
can  marry  and  have  her  home  perched  up  in  the  hills 
overlooking  the  Iirubor  where  her  husband  mnsf  spend 
the  day  with  a  pith  hclnu't  on  his  head  I  <l  Ihi  mu  c 
I  339  ] 


THE  CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

understand  clearly  that  every  evening  she  can  play 
lawn  tennis  or  have  a  scamper  on  horseback,  and  in- 
dulge in  the  many  pastimes  that  make  life  sweet,  and, 
take  my  word  for  it,  the  Government  will  have  to  do 
her  bidding. 


[  340  ] 


XXXIII 

THE   WHITE   INVASION    OF    CHINA 

"//  is  not  dense  population  but  the  causes  which  prevent  social 
organization  from  taking  its  natural  development  .  .  .  that 
keep  millions  just  on  the  verge  of  starvation;  and  every  now  and 
again  force  millions  beyond  it. ' ' — H  enry  George,  *♦  Progress  and 
Poverty,"  p.  109,  ed.  1881. 

Treaty  Ports — Self-government  of  White  Merchants — The  Open 

Door  Policy 

CHINA'S  earliest  experience  of  a  permanent 
settlement  by  white  men  within  her  jurisdic- 
tion was  nearly  four  centuries  ago  (1557)  when 
Portugal  secured  a  lease  of  Macao  near  Canton,  and, 
therefore,  within  the  tropics.  Their  last  experience 
was  in  the  North,  when  the  German  Empire  acquired 
a  lease  of  territory  at  Kiao  Chow  in  1897.  The  Eng- 
lish occupation  of  Wei-hai-Wei,  in  1898,  may  be  re- 
garded as  a  direct  consequence  of  Russia's  seizure  of 
Port  Arthur,  to  say  nothing  of  Germany's  action. 

The  Portuguese  occupation  of  Macao  was  originally 
regarded  with  unconcern,  because  the  supremacy  of 
the  Chinese  Government,  as  landlord,  was  not  ques- 
tioned; and  the  little  bit  of  land  occupied  (formerly 
an  island,  but  now  a  peninsula)  never  ropresiMited 
more  than  a  trading  station  to  the  (loveninuiil  of 
Pekin.  ICvcii  when,  in  iHHi,  Portugal  was  granted 
sovereign  jurisdiction  in  lliat  then  decrepit  port,  the 
I    .VI'    I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

concession  represented  no  menace  whatever  to  the 
Chinese  Government. 

In  1 84 1,  England,  as  a  war  measure,  seized  the  bar- 
ren and  practically  uninhabited  island  of  Hong-Kong, 
in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  Canton  and  almost 
in  sight  of  Macao.  In  this  instance  no  Chinaman  had 
occasion  to  feel  that  the  soil  of  his  country  had  been 
profaned,  for  the  bulk  of  the  islands  which  stud  this  sec- 
tion of  the  China  seas  had  been  a  species  of  freebooters' 
Paradise,  and  the  presence  of  England  was  the  im- 
mediate signal  for  such  a  restoration  of  commercial 
confidence  that  this  inhospitable  rock  was  quickly  peo- 
pled with  such  a  swarm  of  Chinamen  as  seriously  to  em- 
barrass the  authorities  on  the  subject  of  elbow-room. 
After  the  war  of  i860,  in  which  French  and  English 
troops  marched  jointly  to  Pekin  over  the  road  once 
more  occupied  in  1900  by  a  white  military  combina- 
tion, England  added  to  Hong-Kong  a  small  strip 
of  territory,  where  now  ship-building  yards,  vast  dry- 
docks,  storehouses,  and  steamship  wharves  testify  to 
the  commercial  character  of  this  annexation.  But 
even  this  proved  inadequate  to  the  commercial  needs 
of  this  marvellously  successful  colony,  and  in  1898 
another  strip  was  added  to  it,  about  equal  to  that  which 
Germany  had  occupied  at  Kiao  Chow  the  year  before. 

Whatever  the  mandarins  may  have  felt — for,  of 
course,  their  corrupt  system  demands  the  total  exclu- 
sion of  foreigners — there  is  no  doubt  that  the  people 
in  general,  from  the  great  bankers  of  Canton  to  the 
poorest  boatmen  in  Hong-Kong,  welcomed  the 
change  as  a  promise  of  better  things. 

Mr.  Stewart  Lockhart,  an  eminent  sinologist,  who 
[  342  ] 


THE   WHITE   INVASION   OF   CHINA 

was  entrusted  with  the  task  of  marking  out  this  fron- 
tier, told  me  that  during  his  delicate  and  dangerous 
mission  he  was,  by  all  but  the  mandarin  class,  greeted 
with  cordial  inquiries  as  to  how  soon  they  might  come 
under  the  British  flag.  We  may  take  it  almost  as  a 
proved  proposition  that,  when  a  British  subject  is  mo- 
lested in  China  or  the  British  flag  insulted,  the  cause 
is  to  be  found  either  in  the  instigation  of  native  offi- 
cials or  gross  tactlessness  on  the  part  of  the  victim. 

On  the  occasion  of  my  first  trip  to  China  (1876)  the 
treaty  ports  were  much  alarmed  by  the  recent  strange 
murder  of  Margary,  whose  knowledge  of  Chinese  and 
tact  in  handling  the  natives  fitted  him  eminently  for 
the  task  of  crossing  China  to  the  frontiers  of  India. 
At  the  time  of  his  murder  the  Chinese  Government 
loudly  disclaimed  any  share  in  it — on  the  contrary, 
pretended  that  he  was  the  victim  of  mob  fanaticism. 
But  this  brave  man's  subsequently  published  letters, 
coupled  with  the  legal  investigation  that  followed, 
prove  satisfactorily  that  throughout  his  journey  to  In- 
dia he  had  no  occasion  to  take  precautions  regarding 
his  safety,  and  that  he  was  murdered  on  the  return 
journey  by  official  instigation. 

White  man's  colonization  in  China  is  of  two  kinds 
— the  one  represented  by  France,  Russia,  and  Ger- 
many, the  other  by  Great  Britain,  the  United  States, 
and  Ii.ilf  a  dozen  other  European  nations  which  iiuli 
vidually  represent  no  great  colonial  ambition,  but  who 
silciilly  sni)p<)rt  the  policy  of  the  Anglo-Saxt)n.  I 
refer  particularly  to  Norway,  Sweden,  Denmark.  I  l«il 
land,  Svvil/crland,  and  the  German  flenienl  that  is  out- 
side  of  oflicial    and    inilil.irv    inlhience.      I'rance,    in 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

South  China,  introduces  her  own  administrative  sys- 
tem— just  as  she  does  in  Algiers.  The  Russians  at 
Vladivostock  and  Port  Arthur  shut  out  ahen  enter- 
prise still  more  effectively.  The  Germans  at  Kiao 
Chow  proclaim  the  open  door  in  theory,  but  in  prac- 
tice they  have  secured  a  door  whose  hinges  are  very 
rusty  save  to  Germans  in  uniform.  The  Anglo-Saxon 
forces,  on  the  other  hand,  have  colonized  China  from 
Hong-Kong  to  Tientsin,  at  so-called  treaty  ports, 
where  the  Chinese  Government  has  at  various  times 
during  the  past  sixty  years  conceded  land  and  water- 
front privileges  for  commercial  purposes.  These  con- 
cessions were  first  acquired  and  exploited  by  English 
and  American  merchants,  although  under  treaties 
that  permitted  the  rest  of  the  world  to  share  on 
equal  terms.  All  the  world  has  profited  by  the  expedi- 
tion of  Commodore  Perry  to  Japan,  in  1853,  and  also 
by  the  successive  steps  which  England  has  subse- 
quently taken  in  order  to  establish  security  for  Euro- 
pean merchants  throughout  the  Far  East. 

Japan  has  abundantly  proved  that  she  is  one  of  the 
great  civilized  powers  of  the  world,  and  therefore 
white  man's  exceptional  position  there  has  been  wisely 
abolished.  But  in  China  the  Government  still  persists 
on  so  low  a  level  of  moral  official  activity  that  we  have 
no  guaranty  for  the  maintenance  of  treaty  rights  ex- 
cepting the  perpetual  presence  of  gun-boats. 

It  is  due  to  the  habits  of  self-government,  instinc- 
tive in  English  and  Americans,  that  such  ports  as  Tien- 
tsin, Cheefoo,  Shanghai,  etc.,  present  to-day  pictures 
of  excellent  municipal  government  contrasting  vividly 
with  the  filthy  Chinese  communities  round  about. 
[  344  ] 


THE   WHITE   INVASION   OF  CHINA 

The  so-called  "  treaty  ports "  of  my  acquaintance 
need  not  fear  comparison  with  settlements  of  equal 
size  anywhere.  These  "  foreign  concessions,"  though 
nominally  conducted  by  Consuls  of  the  Powers  and 
perpetually  visited  by  war-ships,  are,  nevertheless,  in 
practice,  thrown  back  upon  their  own  energies  for 
the  municipal  government  they  enjoy,  and,  above 
all,  for  protection  against  sudden  outbursts  of  native 
violence. 

Shanghai,  for  instance,  produces  the  impression  of  a 
model  seaport  town,  whose  citizens  secure  vastly  more 
in  return  for  the  taxes  they  pay  than  do  the  voters  of 
New  York  or  Chicago.  This  beautiful  metropolis  of 
the  Yangtse-Kiang  Valley  has  its  whole  water  front 
laid  out  as  a  pleasure  garden,  producing  the  happy 
result  that  we  might  enjoy  in  New  York,  did  our 
Riverside  Park  extend  completely  round  the  island. 
In  warm  evenings  the  families  congregate  here  and 
listen  to  beautiful  music  discoursed  by  Filipino  per- 
formers, who  in  this  part  of  the  world  are,  musically,  as 
eminent  as  are  the  Mexicans  in  the  North  American 
continent.  There  is  a  splendid  "  country  club  "  for 
recreation,  where  a  race-track  is  laid  out,  and  where 
polo,  tennis,  cricket,  and  other  sports  furnish  recrea- 
tion to  both  sexes. 

On  the  \V(j()Sung  is  an  excellently  aiipointcd  row- 
ing and  yacht  club,  and  races  arc  constantly  being  lu-id, 
to  which  a(Iditi(jnal  zest  is  imparted  by  international 
rivalry,  'ihe  streets  of  Shanghai  are.  even  in  the 
slums,  kept  as  clean  as  (hose  of  an  I'-uidpcan  park,  and 
the  roads  arc  patrolled  by  nioiuitcd  incn,  whose  vast 
turbans,  Hashing  eyes,  and  mighty  iniistachios  pro- 
l  345  I 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

claim  them  warriors  from  the  hills  of  India — the  re- 
doubtable Sikhs.  The  Chinaman  has  a  peculiar  re- 
spect for  these  warriors,  for  they  combine  the  stoicism 
of  the  English  "  Bobby  "  with  an  Oriental  cunning 
superior  to  any  other  imported  article  of  that  charac- 
ter. There  are  also  Chinese  policemen,  and,  above 
them  all,  white  inspectors. 

Shanghai,  besides,  is  thoroughly  well  organized  in 
the  matter  of  a  local  volunteer  military  force,  fire  de- 
partment, benevolent  societies,  and  the  many  unob- 
trusive institutions  which  reflect  the  self-governing 
citizen.  It  is  an  anomalous  colony,  this  treaty  port 
of  Shanghai,  for  it  is  a  government  part  Chinese  and 
partly  at  the  mercy  of  a  committee  consisting  of  the 
consuls  of  different  nations.  All  the  elements  of  dis- 
cord and  ofificial  chaos  are  present,  every  nation  has 
its  own  post-office,  and  the  utmost  confusion  might 
be  anticipated  under  a  system  of  this  kind.  The  con- 
suls are  not  only  postmasters,  but  they  also  fill  the  posi- 
tion of  judges  over  their  own  people,  and  in  cases  where 
Chinese  are  involved  they  sit  on  the  same  bench  with  a 
Chinese  colleague. 

To-day  the  system  is  manifestly  absurd  and  should 
be  abolished  in  the  interests  of  the  colonists  them- 
selves. Shanghai,  for  instance,  should  be  endowed 
with  enough  territory  to  expand  according  to  the 
growing  needs  of  the  white  population — say  a  radius 
of  forty  or  fifty  miles  inland.  This  would  enable  her 
citizens  to  control  the  sanitary  drainage,  the  building 
of  roads,  and  the  safety  of  the  port,  with  some  degree 
of  efficiency,  and  at  the  same  time  give  them  the  means 
of  dredging  the  bar  at  the  mouth  of  the  Woosung, 
[  346  ] 


THE    WHITE   INVASION    OF   CHINA 

which  at  present  threatens  to  exclude  ocean-going 
steamers. 

This  great  port  has  been  built  up  by  the  enterprise 
of  white  colonists,  who  have  come  to  this  part  of  the 
world  with  their  families  for  the  purpose  of  bettering 
themselves — just  as  others  have  gone  to  Calcutta  or 
Durban  or  Demerara.  The  merchants  of  Shanghai 
sorely  need  more  territory  over  which  to  exercise  po- 
lice control,  and  a  removal  of  the  many  restrictions 
which  now  arise  from  having  a  committee  of  conflict- 
ing consuls  to  manage  their  affairs. 

The  Shanghai  republic  is  ripe  for  local  independence 
under  a  general  European  guaranty.  It  should,  in  the 
interests  of  trade,  be  raised  to  the  position  of  a  free 
port — a  Venice  of  the  Far  East — a  Hamburg,  as  it  was 
before  the  Bismarckian  era. 

All  classes  of  the  community  sufifer  under  the  pres- 
ent system — none,  perhaps,  more  than  the  Americans, 
owing  to  the  present  and  past  manner  of  recruiting 
our  consular  force.  When  I  visited  China  in  1876, 
the  American  Consul-General  was  a  man  who  was  re- 
garded as  a  thief  by  the  merchant  community,  and, 
shortly  afterward,  was  sent  to  the  penitentiary  for  hav- 
ing stolen  UKjiicy  from  the  mails. 

On  my  second  visit  to  Shanghai,  in  1898,  the  chief 
American  Consul  was  one  whose  appointment  had 
elicited  the  |)r()lcst  of  every  respectable  merchant  in 
Minm;ip()Hs,  his  native  town.  The  only  training  for 
his  higli  i)osl  had  been  gained  as  manager  of  a  jirofos- 
sional  base -ball  clnb;  otherwise  his  career  had  boon 
that  of  the  aviiage  small  politician. 

He  had  been  publicly  sla|)|)c'(|  m  the  Sliaiij^liai  cliil) 
I   .V\7   I 


THE   CHILDREN    OF   THE   NATIONS 

by  his  predecessor  in  office,  under  circumstances  which 
occasioned  no  regret  in  the  mind  of  the  club  commit- 
tee! And  be  it  said  in  parenthesis  that,  in  the  Far 
East,  when  a  white  man  sinks  so  low  that  he  cannot 
hold  the  good  opinion  of  his  fellow  white  men,  he  is 
not  likely  to  prove  a  valuable  public  servant. 

From  our  point  of  view,  consuls  have  no  business 
in  colonies  which  are  officially  designated  "  treaty 
ports."  If  China  is  a  civilized  power,  in  the  sense  that 
we  exchange  diplomatic  agents  on  equal  terms,  then 
our  consuls  should  be  sent  to  Chinese  towns,  and  not 
to  white  settlements.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  our  con- 
suls are  afraid  to  take  up  residence  in  the  midst  of  Chi- 
nese communities,  let  us  recognize  the  fact  frankly, 
do  away  with  the  farce  of  receiving  Chinese  diplo- 
matic agents,  and  treat  the  white  communities  in 
China  as  colonies  in  the  land  of  the  barbarian.  To-day 
the  white  man  is  exposed  to  daily  insult  in  the  settle- 
ments which  his  energy  has  made  prosperous.  At 
Cheefoo,  Dr.  Corbett,  the  oldest  missionary,  told  me 
that  no  white  lady  could  traverse  the  town  alone  be- 
cause of  the  foul  language  she  had  to  hear.  In  that 
port  white  energy  has  made  clean  avenues  and  built 
solid  houses — yet  the  settlers  are  confined  to  a  very 
small  area  and  are,  as  it  were,  besieged  by  a  vast  Chi- 
nese army,  through  whose  midst  one  must  pass  be- 
fore the  open  country  can  be  reached. 

At  Canton  the  white  community  is  herded  on  an 
island  little  bigger  than  an  Atlantic  liner,  and  from  one 
year's  end  to  the  other  the  wives  of  white  merchants 
hardly  know  what  it  is  to  take  a  real  walk  in  the  coun- 
try. 

[  348  ] 


THE   WHITE   INVASION   OF   CHINA 

Tientsin  has  been  bnilt  up,  like  Johannesburg, 
through  white  enterprise,  and  yet  that  settlement  on 
the  Peiho,  like  its  sister  at  Shanghai,  in  the  whole 
course  of  its  existence  has  received  no  aid  from  the 
Chinese  Government  in  the  way  of  keeping  the  water 
approaches  navigable.  In  1876  I  steamed  up  to  Tien- 
tsin as  well  as  to  Shanghai.  In  1898  both  these  ports 
were  unequal  to  furnishing  the  requisite  water  for 
sea-going  craft. 

In  the  present  chaotic  state  of  Chinese  politics, 
where  international  rivalry  makes  the  situation  still 
more  uncertain,  the  duty  of  England  and  America  is 
clear — in  so  far  as  they  are  actuated  solely  by  an  in- 
terest in  commercial  expansion.  They  should  at  once 
arrange  for  the  local  independence  under  international 
guarantee  of  such  settlements  as  Shanghai,  Cheefoo 
and  Tientsin,  together  with  such  territory  in  the  neigh- 
borhood as  may  be  found  necessary  for  the  health  of 
white  families. 

When  Germany  seized  Kiao  Chow  no  white  people 
were  settled  there  who  might  have  furnished  a  pretext. 
She  dispossessed  the  Chinese  already  there  and  pro- 
poses to  create  in  Shantung  a  white  community,  Ger- 
man in  government  and  German  in  speech. 

But  self-government  is  not  likely  to  be  tolerated 
by  the  Prussian  eagle,  and  without  self-government 
it  is  not  likely  that  German  merchants  now  established 
in  ll()ng-Kr)ng  and  .Sliaiii;hai  will  move  (o  Kiao 
Chow. 

The  intcrnalional  guar.iiitcc  wliiili  I  have  propo.sed 
implies  no  menace  to  the  integrity  of  ("liiiia — ccr- 
lainly  no  more  than  is  now  involved  in  the  prcs- 
I    .VN   1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

ent  treaty  ports.  There  is  no  probability  that  the 
white  race  will  ever  overspread  China — or  ever  desire 
to — in  our  time.  We  entertain  but  a  legitimate  de- 
sire to  enjoy  with  her  people  the  same  trade  guaran- 
ties that  we  have  with  Japan.  The  people  of  the 
"  treaty  ports  "  ask  land  for  no  military  object,  and 
desire  only  what  is  absolutely  necessary — for  every 
mile  means  increased  cost  of  policing.  But  what  they 
demand  to-day  is  justified  by  the  fact  that  China  is  as 
yet  incapable  of  governing  herself,  let  alone  affording 
a  government  fit  for  a  white  man.  The  white  settle- 
ments, if  they  are  to  prosper,  must  partake  somewhat 
of  enclaves  within  the  territory  of  the  Chinese  Empire, 
limited  to  half  a  dozen  points  easily  reached  by  gun- 
boats. 

In  China  the  white  man  has  not,  and  cannot  for 
many  generations,  have  social  intercourse  with  the  in- 
habitants— the  gulf  separating  their  domestic  institu- 
tions is  too  vast  to  be  bridged  over  in  our  time.  In 
all  China  I  know  of  no  club  in  which  Chinese  and 
whites  can  associate  on  equal  terms.  In  Japan,  on 
the  other  hand,  I  have  found  happiness  in  the  social 
atmosphere  which  they  breathe,  have  felt  myself  sur- 
rounded with  ideas  regarding  honor,  cleanliness, 
woman,  and  morality,  often  superior  to  those  we 
preach  and  try  to  practise.  At  the  principal  social 
club  of  Tokio,  Japanese  and  Anglo-Saxons  meet  on 
terms  of  perfect  equality — for  myself  I  should  say  that 
the  Anglo-Saxon  in  Japan  feels,  socially,  more  at  home 
than  in  several  places  of  southern  Europe  where  the 
inhabitants  are  called  white  by  courtesy. 

It  should  not  be  the  policy  of  the  white  nations  to 
[  350  ] 


THE   WHITE   INVASION   OF   CHINA 

dismember  China.  Let  us  bear  in  mind  that  in  1900, 
when  the  allied  armies  entered  Tientsin,  the  Christian 
nations  all  tolerated  plundering.  The  Japanese  Gen- 
eral, Fukushima,  alone  set  an  example  of  soldierly  self- 
restraint.  It  is  time  we  sent  missionaries  to  the  bar- 
racks of  so-called  Christian  soldiers. 

I  can  recall  the  energy  with  which  General  Fuku- 
shima, as  early  as  1898,  discountenanced  all  notions 
of  a  partition  of  China — insisting  with  a  volume  of 
cogent  reasoning  that  her  integrity  should  be  pre- 
served, and  she  should  be  led  by  persistent  pressure  to 
improve  her  government. 

It  should  be  manifestly  absurd  to  work  toward  the 
disruption  of  a  race  entity  like  China  at  a  time  when 
history  so  clearly  demonstrates  the  folly  of  similar 
movements.  This  century  has  been  eminently  one  of 
national  reorganization  on  the  lines  of  racial  affinity — 
the  unity  of  Italy  is  one  instance — that  of  Germany  is 
but  half-complete — Russia's  experience  in  Poland  but 
marks  the  folly  of  partition  on  such  a  plan.  China  is 
just  now  very  foul  politically,  very  helpless  as  a  fighting 
force,  and  strangely  dull  to  all  national  aspiration.  But 
these  are  conditions  that  arc  in  process  of  change,  and 
we  may  be  sure  that  a  partition  of  the  country  between 
the  great  military  powers  would  result  in  a  Chinese  Po- 
land against  which  many  Russias  would  prove  inef- 
fectual. 

To-day,  with  the  help  of  Japan,  the  Anglo-Saxon 
element  can  do  in  China  a  great  work  for  civilization 
— one  that  will  earn  us  llu-  gratitude  of  the  Chinese 
themselves.  We  can  gnaiantce  their  integrity  at  the 
same  time  that  we  guarantee  that  of  otw  colonies  on 
the  Yangtse,  the  Pcilio,  and  clu-wliere.  We  can  lake 
1   ,\Si    1 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE   NATIONS 

over  in  trust  their  postal  and  telegraphic  service,  as 
we  have  already  earned  their  gratitude  by  administer- 
ing their  customs.  We  can  build  their  railways  and 
high-roads,  without  in  the  least  impairing  their  sover- 
eign rights,  or  displaying  a  hostile  flag.  This  service 
will  necessarily  employ  an  enormous  number  of  na- 
tives, who  will  thus  familiarize  themselves  with  hon- 
esty, punctuality,  and  justice  in  the  conduct  of  great 
enterprises.  All  those  who  supervise  these  depart- 
ments of  public  improvement  will  be,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  maritime  customs,  nominal  officials  of  the  Chinese 
Government,  and  all  the  revenues  will  be  credited  to 
the  empire  or  spent  for  its  benefit.  In  the  same  man- 
ner the  canals  of  China  must  be  cleaned  out  and  once 
more  made  navigable,  and  here  again  the  enormous 
number  of  coolies  that  will  find  employment  promises 
to  rally  in  support  of  the  white  man  an  immense  pub- 
lic sentiment. 

We  know  how  much  has  been  done  for  security  in 
Mexico  by  the  invasion  of  the  American  railway,  with 
its  army  of  employes  trained  to  punctuality,  honesty, 
and  fair  play.  It  is  little  exaggeration  to  say  that  the 
locomotive  has  been  worth,  to  our  neighbor  beyond 
the  Rio  Grande,  as  much  as  a  gigantic  police  force — 
an  element  against  which  revolutionary  agitation 
proves  futile.  People  don't  quarrel  with  their  bread 
and  butter,  as  a  rule,  and  in  China  the  white  man  will 
find  little  obstacle  so  long  as  his  progress  is  marked, 
not  by  missionary  stations  and  the  graves  of  soldiers 
— but  by  the  industrial  triumphs  in  which  the  Chinese 
themselves  have  a  share  as  wage-earners.  The  loco- 
motive will  conquer  China  yet — all  depends  upon  the 
coolness  and  courage  of  the  driver. 
[  352  ] 


XXXIV 

THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   COLONIZATION 

*'The  ideal  to  which  we  must  look  in  the  coming  century  (twen- 
tieth) is  the  consolidating  of  the  nations  under  world  governments. 
The  suggestion  that  Switzerland  and  the  United  States  should  be 
under  one  government  is  not  so  absurd  as  it  looks. ^^ — New  York  In- 
dependent, December  13,  1900,  editorial. 

Trade  Does  not  Necessarily  Follow  the  Flag — Home  Government 
Should  Encourage  Emigration 

THE  last  four  centuries  have  piled  up  for  our 
benefit  an  accumulation  of  experience  in  the 
colonial  field  that  should  now  be  turned  to 
good  account.  Portuguese,  Spaniards,  Dutch,  French, 
and  finally  Imperial  Germany,  all  have  helped  in  the 
solution  of  problems  which  must  for  some  time  engage 
the  serious  attention  of  statesmen,  England  herself 
has  committed  in  times  past  nearly  all  the  follies  which 
have  destroyed  other  nations,  but,  fortunately  for  us. 
her  people  have  known  how  to  repair  the  blunders  of 
government  more  rapidly  than  government  could  ai>- 
preciatc  the  mischief  that  was  being  dene. 

One  by  one,  colonial  doctrines  based  upon  tlioo- 
logical  and  political  ignorance  have  given  way  to  more 
liberal  ones,  luitil  to-day,  at  least  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
world,  colonies  arc  not  merely  permitted  but  urged  to 
exercise  sclf-goveriinKiit  (<»  (lie  greatest  possible 
extent. 


THE   CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

The  present  condition  of  some  nations,  however — as 
for  instance  France  and  Germany,  produces  an  official 
attitude  toward  colonies  which  we  should  carefully 
avoid,  for  it  leads  back  to  those  errors  which  under- 
mined the  strength  of  Spain. 

The  Bismarckian  school  of  statesmanship  is  strong 
in  more  countries  than  Germany.  It  is  a  dangerous 
school  from  which  to  graduate  colonial  administra- 
tors, for  in  it  is  taught  the  doctrine  that  physical  force 
is  the  dominating  factor  in  national  development. 
Bismarck  never  moved  without  a  sabre  in  one  hand 
— even  in  the  peaceful  halls  devoted  to  legislation; 
his  idea  of  good  government  was  the  tidiness  and 
monotony  of  the  barrack-yard. 

To-day  we  often  hear  the  meaningless  maxim  that 
"  trade  follows  the  flag  " — a  maxim  which  has  dazzled 
continental  Europe  and  spurred  Germany  on  to  enor- 
mous pecuniary  sacrifices  for  the  purpose  of  planting 
her  flag  in  far-away  islands.  But  German  trade  has 
not  followed  the  German  flag  in  the  past,  nor  does  it 
to-day;  on  the  contrary,  it  follows  that  of  England  and 
the  United  States,  and  will  continue  to  follow  them 
so  long  as  the  German  merchant  finds  ours  more 
profitable.  German  trade  and  German  shipping  were 
built  up  to  splendid  proportions  before  Germany  had 
a  single  colony,  and  it  is  worth  noting  that  the  craze 
for  colonies  has  arisen,  not  from  the  sober  merchants 
of  Bremen  and  Hamburg,  but  from  military,  official, 
and  high-school  circles  with  scant  practical  knowl- 
edge. The  great  steamship  lines  from  Germany  to 
New  York  naturally  rejoice  in  the  prospect  of  heavy 
subsidies,  no  matter  for  what  object;  but  no  govern- 
[  354  ] 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   COLONIZATION 

ment  subsidies  can  outweigh  for  a  moment  the  solid 
advantages  arising  from  free  intercourse  with  ports 
like  New  York  and  Boston,  the  River  Plate  and  Hong- 
Kong.  The  German  Government  can  by  a  heavy 
subsidy  produce  a  steamship  line  between  Kiao  Chow 
and  Shanghai,  but  the  German  taxpayer  must  make 
up  to  the  owners  of  that  line  what  they  lose  by  embark- 
ing in  an  enterprise  devoid  of  legitimate  freight  re- 
turns. "  Trade  follows  the  flag  "  is  one  of  those  half 
truths  calculated  to  do  much  mischief.  It  suggests 
the  plausible  idea  that  we  buy  our  goods  on  senti- 
mental and  not  on  business  principles.  In  real  life  we 
do  no  such  thing.  We  do  not  buy  our  groceries  from 
the  shop  nearest  to  us  if  there  is  one  further  off  which 
gives  us  better  value  for  our  money.  We  do  not 
cross  the  ocean  in  the  ships  of  our  own  nationality 
if  there  are  others  who  do  the  service  as  well  and  for 
less  money.  German  ships  leave  New  York  loaded 
with  American  passengers  and  they  return  from  Aus- 
tralia and  Hong-Kong  crowded  with  British.  If  trade 
followed  the  flag,  passenger  trade  would  be  the  first 
to  prove  it,  but  it  does  not.  On  the  contrary,  other 
things  being  equal,  English  and  Americans  show  un- 
mistakably that  they  patronize  steamship  lines  with 
something  of  the  impartiality  with  which  they  pur- 
chase wines  or  groceries. 

Many  of  the  most  intelligent,  industrious,  and  enter- 
prising nations  of  Iuiroj)c,  tliat  send  forth  a  steady 
annual  stream  of  emigrants,  have  no  Hag  to  follow — 
in  the  German  sense — but  are  daily  enriching  them- 
selves, the  land  in  which  they  settle,  and  also  the  honios 
they  have  left.  They  look  out  upon  the  woild 
I  .i55  J 


THE   CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

through  no  eyes  of  prejudice;  they  select  the  scene 
of  their  activity  with  a  single  eye  to  their  own  personal 
requirements,  and  they  prosper  without  the  assistance 
of  their  home  administration. 

Norway  grows  daily  stronger  and  richer;  she  has 
no  colony  worth  mentioning,  yet  sends  forth  annually 
a  strong  percentage  of  her  vigorous  people  to  the 
United  States,  and  elsewhere.  Bismarckian  politicians 
are  capable  of  seeing  and  counting  the  men  that  leave 
a  country,  but  they  are  not  able  to  appreciate  the  in- 
direct advantages  which  compensate  for  this  tem- 
porary loss.  The  German  official  can  understand  why 
his  fellow-subjects  should  slip  away  to  another  coun- 
tfy,  but  he  cannot  appreciate  the  fact  that  such  a  one, 
wherever  he  may  settle,  whether  in  New  York  or  in 
Australia,  remains  a  German  in  blood  and  breeding,  if 
not  in  political  sympathies.  German  emigrants  may 
hate  German  officialism  and  cheerfully  renounce  all 
political  allegiance  to  the  land  of  their  birth,  but  never- 
theless they  and  their  children  and  their  children's 
children  will  cherish  a  pride  in  the  past  history  of  their 
race;  will  cultivate  good  relations  with  those  of  their 
own  nation,  and  when  their  turn  comes  to  travel,  their 
mind  will  turn  instinctively  to  an  ancestral  home  in  the 
Fatherland. 

Germany  to-day  reaps  a  rich  harvest  from  the  trade 
with  America,  thanks  to  colonists  that  have  settled 
under  the  Stars  and  Stripes  because  they  could  not 
find  what  they  wanted  at  home. 

So  long  as  official  Germany  permits  German-Amer- 
icans to  return  and  enjoy  themselves  in  the  "  Father- 
land "  without  too  much  police  inquisition,  she  will 
[  356  ] 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF  COLONIZATION 

reap  a  steadily  increasing  harvest  from  this  source,  and 
little  by  little,  even  officials  will  appreciate  the  fact  that 
emigrants  to  other  colonies  are  not  a  dead  loss  to  the 
mother  country. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  great  advantage  to  the 
white  race  in  colonizing  the  world  on  a  more  cosmo- 
politan plan  than  merely  by  a  colonial  replica  of  the 
mother  country.  Europe,  through  centuries  of  war- 
fare, religious  intolerance,  and  political  narrow-mind- 
edness, has  produced  barriers  between  nations.  The 
administrative  organs  of  different  European  countries 
print  perpetually  statements  calculated  to  create  a  false 
patriotism  which  delights  in  conceiving  all  other  na- 
tions as  bad. 

Colonists  do  not  know  the  narrow  nationalism  that 
rages  in  the  home  countries.  The  German,  French, 
and  English  merchants  of  Hong-Kong,  Cape  Town,  or 
New  York  smile  at  the  bundle  of  lies  which  their  home 
papers  circulate.  They  know  one  another — and  that  is 
enough.  In  India  the  German  merchant  admires  the 
magnanimity  of  the  British,  who,  though  conquerors 
of  that  Empire,  have  nevertheless  treated  the  people 
with  a  measure  of  good  government  amazing  in  its  ex- 
tent and  efficacy.  Such  a  merchant  cannot  but  be 
shocked  when  the  Berlin  press  comments  upon  au  Ind- 
ian famine  as  an  event  brought  about  by  British  cruel- 
ty and  misrule!  The  colonist  that  settles  under  his  own 
flag  and  sees  only  those  of  his  own  way  of  thinking, 
gains  something  of  bnadth  and  j)olitical  experience, 
but  he  wluj  benefits  most  is  one  who  emerges  from  the 
jjoisonons  atmosphere  of  international  recrimination 
and  ill  IJK  course  of  a  few  days'  steaming  emerges  in 
I  357  J 


THE  CHILDREN   OF  THE  NATIONS 

a  community  where  men  of  all  nations  are  working 
shoulder  to  shoulder  in  the  task  of  subduing  nature — 
governing  native  races — carrying  on  commerce — de- 
veloping the  resources  of  the  earth. 

These  are  the  people  that  profit  most  by  the 
precious  lessons  of  colonization,  these  are  the  ones 
that  should  be  encouraged  by  the  home  government, 
these  are  the  true  missionaries,  the  men  who  smooth 
away  race  friction,  who  cast  aside  national  spites,  who 
pave  the  way  for  the  millennium  of  Free  Trade — good- 
will among  nations. 


[358] 


XXXV 

THE   AMERICAN   AS   A    COLONIST 

"/  will  make  them  conform  or  I  will  harry  them  out  of  the 
land.'''' — ^James  I.  in  the  Conference  about  Puritans  at  Hampton 
Court. 

The  Message  of  1901. — '^The  ^een  commands  me  to  express 
through  you,  to  the  people  of  Australia,  her  'Majesty's  heartfelt  in- 
terest in  the  inauguration  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  her  earnest 
wish  that,  under  Divine  Providence,  it  may  ensure  the  increased 
prosperity  and  well-being  of  her  loyal  and  beloved  subjects  in  Aus- 
tralia. ' ' 

Spread  of  New  Englanders  over  all  North  America — Capacity  for 
Local  Self-government 

UP  to  the  year  1898,  when  the  United  States  sud- 
denly and  violently  rose  to  the  rank  of  a  colo- 
nial power,  Americans  were  habitually  rep^ardcd 
as  far  outside  of  European  combinations  on  this  sub- 
ject. Old  world  writers  on  colonization,  while  they 
honored  Russia  and  even  Denmark  with  a  cliaptcr, 
gave  no  thoujj^ht  to  America  after  her  separation  from 
England  in  1783. 

And  yet  the  United  States  of  1783  has  been  the 
mother  of  a  colonizing  family  worthy  of  the  best  An- 
glo-Saxon traditions  whirh  they  brought  from  the 
mother  conntry.  American  colonization  is  the  very 
antithesis  of  that  which  k'lissia  has  cidtivated  and  to 
wiiich  so  many  writers  poinl  with  ill-groimdcil  ad- 
l  359  J 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

miration.  The  Czar,  with  an  administrative  machin- 
ery adapted  to  his  monotonous  millions  of  illiterate 
serfs,  has  sown  Siberia  with  a  crop  whose  quantity  ex- 
cites amazement,  but  whose  quality  calls  forth  sorrow. 
The  histor>^  of  American  colonization  is  reflected  in 
the  family  chronicles  of  hundreds  who,  under  the  spur 
of  political  or  religious  intolerance,  came  of  their  own 
free  will  and  at  their  own  expense  to  a  land  where 
the  liberty  they  sought  was  rendered  the  more  sweet 
by  the  dangers  with  which  it  was  associated.  As 
children  were  born  and  the  little  communities  ex- 
panded, the  rising  generation  showed  the  same  eager- 
ness for  new  adventure  as  had  characterized  the  orig- 
inal settlers,  and  thus  we  find  an  English  family,  which 
in  1620  landed  in  Massachusetts  Bay,  thirty  years 
afterward  sending  representatives  westward  toward 
the  Connecticut  River,  in  another  generation  settling 
about  Hartford  or  New  Haven;  next  the  name  appears 
for  the  first  time  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson,  and  an- 
other generation  finds  it  contesting  with  Frenchmen 
on  the  frontiers  of  the  present  State  of  New  York. 

So  on,  from  generation  to  generation,  the  hardy  New 
England  stock  has  propagated  itself,  from  the  Scotch- 
like stony  soil  of  ]\Iassachusetts,  westward  toward  the 
Great  Lakes,  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  and  be- 
yond; conquering  the  wilderness;  asking  no  favors  of 
government;  taxing  themselves  for  school-houses  and 
churches;  fighting  the  Indians;  establishing  home- 
steads, villages,  towns,  and  ultimately  States,  which  in 
due  course  of  time  were,  at  their  own  request,  ad- 
mitted into  the  American  Union. 

New  England  has  furnished  the  best  type  of  the 
I  360  ] 


THE  AMERICAN   AS  A   COLONIST 

American  colonist,  although,  had  there  been  no  New- 
England,  Virginia  and  her  neighbors  would  have  still 
furnished  the  world  with  colonial  leaders  in  plenty. 

The  introduction  of  negro  slavery  into  the  United 
States  was  a  political  and  economic  error,  and  retarded 
in  many  w^ays  the  fullest  development  of  the  States 
which  tolerated  it.  Without  discussing  that  question 
here,  we  note  only  the  fact  that  in  a  small  section  of 
New  England  are  concentrated,  and  have  been  for 
more  than  two  centuries,  the  intellectual  training- 
schools  from  which  have  gone  forth  generation 
after  generation  of  shrewd,  ambitious,  well-disci- 
plined and  well-informed  young  men,  wdio,  as  school- 
teachers, clergymen,  doctors,  lawyers,  have  uniformly 
marched  with  the  pioneers  toward  the  western  frontier. 
We  have  only  to  glance  at  the  dull  mass  of  French  Ca- 
nadians and  compare  them  with  an  equal  body  of  New 
Englanders  a  hundred  years  ago,  to  illustrate  our 
meaning. 

The  notable  feature  of  American  colonization,  par- 
ticularly from  the  beginning  of  this  century  to  the 
settlement  of  California  after  the  discovery  of  gold, 
is  the  universal  i)raclicc  of  vohintarily  clubbing  to- 
gether for  offensive  and  defensive  purposes;  total  ab- 
sence of  any  administrative  interference  on  the  part 
of  the  central  government,  and  an  e(|ually  creditable 
absence  of  demand  for  governnunl  iiiU'iferenco  on  the 
part  of  the  colonists.  There  are  one  or  two  apparent 
excepti(jns,  but  they  are  trilling  compared  to  the 
whole  niovcniciil,  wliicli  in  lliis  n-iitin y  altMir  lias  I'iiiu- 
inatcd  l"'rencli  and  Spanish  inlhu'nce  from  the  whole 
of  the  Nnitli  Anici  i(  an  ( "<  mtinrul ,  lias  spread  the  Eng- 


THE   CHILDREN   OF   THE  NATIONS 

lish  language  throughout  its  boundaries  without 
administrative  coercion,  and  has  reared  a  monument 
to  self-government  exceeding  the  most  fantastic  polit- 
ical dreams  of  our  forefathers. 

The  Anglo-Saxons  who  trekked  across  the  Alle- 
gheny Mountains  at  the  close  of  the  i8th  century  and 
reared  their  log  cabins  in  the  forests  of  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky,  cut  themselves  off  from  civilization  quite  as 
much  as  did  the  Boers  who  invaded  the  Kaffir  strong- 
holds of  inner  Africa.  The  Republic  of  Texas  is  a 
colonial  romance.  The  latter-day  Yankee,  with  the 
hatred  of  Spain  in  his  blood,  fell  foul  of  Spanish  set- 
tlements in  the  great  southwestern  territories,  where 
Spanish  Priests  and  Mexican  Alcaldes  represented  the 
same  civilization  which  had  invited  the  freebooting 
expeditions  of  Drake  and  Raleigh  three  centuries  ago. 
The  individual  American,  whatever  his  Government 
might  order,  could  not  tolerate  the  bastard  Spanish 
institutions  which  flourished  over  California,  Arizona, 
New  Mexico,  and  Texas  at  the  time  when  the  frontiers 
of  the  United  States  were  being  pushed  further  and 
further  toward  the  setting  sun.  The  conflict  was  in- 
evitable, and  the  result  equally  certain.  Spanish  in- 
stitutions under  Mexican  government  were  hopelessly 
swamped  under  the  tide  of  advancing  colonists,  and 
to-day  the  three  centuries  of  Spanish  or  Mexican  rule 
are  recalled  only  by  a  few  ruins  of  priestly  missions — a 
few  picturesque  Spanish  names,  which  have  enriched 
the  vocabulary  of  miners  and  cowboys. 

During  all  this  colonizing  period,  notably  the  first 
fifty  years  of  this  century.  Englishmen  were  colonizing 
Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
[  362  ] 


THE  AMERICAN   AS  A    COLONIST 

and,  in  addition,  pouring  a  steady  stream  into  Canada 
and  the  United  States.  The  Anglo-Saxon  was  doing 
his  share  in  every  part  of  the  world — with  or  without 
government  guidance. 

Germany,  too,  through  the  pressure  of  bad  govern- 
ment at  home,  was  sending  forth  a  large  annual  vol- 
ume of  discontented  emigrants;  but  unfortunately, 
according  to  Professor  Woker,  no  satisfactory  esti- 
mate has  yet  been  made  of  their  number.  Official 
statements  on  this  subject  are  necessarily  imperfect, 
because  the  several  German  governments  placed  ad- 
ministrative obstructions  in  the  way  of  emigration, 
and  therefore  a  large  proportion  of  those  who  left  their 
country  did  so  secretly  under  false  names,  or  under  the 
pretence  of  belonging  to  other  nations. 

The  political  persecution  which  followed  the  revo- 
lution of  1848,  brought  from  Germany  the  first  con- 
siderable consignment  of  men  eminent  as  leaders  of 
thought.  America  is  studded  to-day  with  German 
social  organizations  which  keep  up  intimate  relations 
with  the  literary  and  political  life  of  the  Fatherland. 
Scarcely  an  American  town  that  has  not  a  German 
Turn  Vcrcin  or  Licdcrtafcl.  New  York,  Chicago,  and 
similar  centres  have  German  clubs  testifying  to  a 
wealthy  and  large  mcniborship.  The  best  German 
actors  hnd  ample  encouragement  for  a, trip  across  the 
Atlantic,  even  though  they  limit  their  pcrfonn.inccs  to 
exclusively  German  audiences.  The  German  |)apers  of 
America  are  in  many  instances  not  t)nly  better  e(lite<l 
than  some  nulropolitan  dailies  of  my  acquaintance, 
but  T  know  of  no  daily  of  Picrlin  that  does  not  siilTor 
Ijy    compari.son    with    I  lie    Shuils    /lilnti}^    of    New 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  NATIONS 

York.  These  and  many  other  signs  speak  well 
for  the  high  average  of  general  intelligence  and  cult- 
ure that  characterizes  the  millions  of  Germans  who 
form  a  precious  portion  of  American  citizenship. 
They  have  come  to  America  in  order  to  become  Amer- 
ican, and  they  have,  from  the  very  beginning,  shared 
all  the  rights  of  Americans. 

But  it  is  strange  that  in  all  these  years,  particularly 
when  America  was  a  wilderness  from  the  Alleghenies 
to  the  Pacific,  not  a  single  German  community  should 
have  endeavored  to  perpetuate  its  own  language  and 
institutions,  after  the  fashion  of  the  Boers  in  the  Trans- 
vaal or  the  Mormons  in  Utah.  There  was  no  adminis- 
trative machinery  to  hinder  them;  on  the  contrary,  the 
land  was  open  to  all  comers  and  no  embarrassing 
questions  were  asked. 

But  as  nations  are  credited  by  some  philosopher 
with  producing  the  particular  kind  of  Jew  that  suits 
them  best,  so  in  the  long  run  the  monarchs  of  a  coun- 
try bear  a  certain  resemblance  to  the  people  over 
whom  they  rule — and  it  is  no  mere  accident  that  Ger- 
many has  developed  a  long  line  of  rulers  whose  atti- 
tude toward  the  people  has  been  that  of  a  military 
commander  rather  than  of  a  constitutional  executive. 

That  may  in  a  degree  explain  the  striking  inapti- 
tude of  the  Gei;man  for  colonial  self-government,  many 
as  are  his  virtues  in  other  respects. 

But  the  American  has  by  no  means  limited  his  colo- 
nial enterprise  to  his  own  country,  vast  as  it  is.  He  has 
sought  his  interests  in  every  part  of  the  world  where 
adventure  or  fortune  favored,  whether  in  the  gold- 
fields  of  Australia  or  South  Africa;  a  fihbustering  trip 
[  364  ] 


THE  AMERICAN   AS  A   COLONIST 

to  South  America;  a  commission  in  the  Egyptian 
army,  or  as  a  trader  to  China.  There  are  few  corners 
of  the  world  where  the  traveller  will  not  run  across 
prosperous  Yankees  who  are  perfectly  at  home  in  the 
land  of  their  adoption,  see  as  little  of  their  consul  as 
possible,  avail  themselves  of  every  advantage  afforded 
by  such  political  rights  as  they  can  secure,  and  in  short, 
get  on  well  with  their  neighbors  and  the  world  at  large. 
In  the  British  colonies  and  the  treaty  ports  of  bar- 
barous countries,  Americans  and  English  naturally 
drift  together  in  any  schemes  for  improvement  or 
revolution.  They  understand  one  another  instinc- 
tively; they  both  have  the  same  political  ideals  of  law, 
liberty,  and  justice — they  are  both  trained  in  the  same 
political  school  for  securing  these  objects.  Thus, 
whether  in  Johannesburg  or  Shanghai,  Barbados  or 
Cairo — in  the  Club  of  Manila  or  the  Casino  of  Buenos 
Ayres,  wherever  there  are  representatives  of  different 
nationalities,  there  the  two  wings  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
family  fold  together  in  mutual  support.  America  has 
no  need  to  encourage  emigration,  for  she  has  yet  land 
enough  and  to  spare,  but  when  density  of  population 
shall  afflict  this  continent  as  it  does  the  countries  of  the 
Old  World,  then  will  be  developed  a  monster  coloniz- 
ing force.  For  if,  with  plenty  of  room  at  home,  the 
Yankee  has,  nevertheless,  overspread  North  America, 
and  even  dripped  over  into  other  colonics,  what  may 
we  not  expect  when  the  iiuHiilive  of  luiiiger  is  added  to 
that  of  mere  adventure  or  national  ambition! 


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